If you don't come up with those five names, seems like it might be time to focus on an idea that solves a problem you or someone you are close with is passionate about. Such a huge advantage to be working on something that inspires you, and makes coming up with other people sharing the same pain an easy task.
A simple way to validate your startup idea
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Re: A simple way to validate your startup idea
#12I do wonder if this is a valid technique if your sales target is businesses, not individual consumers. Perhaps some variant?
Re: A simple way to validate your startup idea
#13Vapid. Is anyone else sick of his recycling of obvious memes in 200 words or less with xxlarge fonts and all too generous padding? This is the 3rd or 4th time I've seen this dude's blog on HN. I suppose an army of shills is the first lesson in marketing.
Re: A simple way to validate your startup idea
#14From jwz[1], here's a similar take: > If you want to do something that's going to change the world, build software that people want to use instead of software that managers want to buy. [1] http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html
And then we had lotus, outlook, meeting maker
Re: A simple way to validate your startup idea
#15In all honesty, making something that can solve your own problems might be the most effective validation you need. Chances are there's others like you out there. And they're probably closer than you think.
Just a thought.
Re: A simple way to validate your startup idea
#16That this advice even needs to be said is telling of the startup culture. There seems to be alot of people attracted by the allure of billion dollar exits, or whatever motivates people to build stuff for "other people". Personally, I only build things that I want myself. Being my own Customer Zero is really fun & rewarding, and even if the product doesn't sell, it wasn't a complete waste, because at least I got the p…
Yeah, and specifically a lot of businesses were born when the founders of a first business faced trouble in a certain area. They reasoned that if it was so hard for them to do X, then the same must be true for others, and so launched a separate company to help others solve x.
Of course, care must be taken that using one's self as a reference customer is not being too myopic. But I suppose that's where the advice in the article could still be useful--that is, in vetting the idea.
Re: A simple way to validate your startup idea
#17Wood table, leica, moleskine, MacBook, earbuds...