How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#1

Post by sophmonroe » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:13 PM UTC

How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea
blog.wepay.com

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#2

Post by lhnn » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:32 PM UTC

These are interesting ideas. I'd like to hear from any founders who have used any of these methods, and to what extent they were beneficial in gauging the eventual level of success of an idea.

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#3

Post by kirinkalia » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:32 PM UTC

This piece succeeds because it spells the steps out clearly and tells you there are three very big counter-examples. So if you're trying to change the way people spend time and/or communicate, how do you get validation?

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#4

Post by kqueue » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:34 PM UTC

This is exactly what mark zuckerberg did. [sarcasm]

IMHO, you invalidate an idea after you implement it and see the user's reactions. Before then, you cannot know if it will succeed or not.

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#5

Post by alain94040 » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:36 PM UTC

I fully agree with the article, however, when I think of most the big successes of the last 10 years, they all fall in the exception category.

What does that tell me? Would that have worked for twitter? No. For Google search? Barely. For Facebook? Probably not. GroupOn? Probably.

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#6

Post by krschultz » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:46 PM UTC

alain94040 wrote: post #5

I fully agree with the article, however, when I think of most the big successes of the last 10 years, they all fall in the exception category. What does that tell me? Would that have worked for twitter? No. For Google search? Barely. For Facebook? Probably not. GroupOn? Probably.

You probably could have done this with Google search.

Would you love to replace the super slow inaccurate search you are using now with one that delivered accurate results in 1/10th of the time?

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#7

Post by auston » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:50 PM UTC

You guys should work on formatting your posts, bold list titles or italicize or underline - I am too lazy to read everything, I want to skim before I decide to read.

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#8

Post by aberman » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:52 PM UTC

kqueue wrote: post #4

This is exactly what mark zuckerberg did. [sarcasm] IMHO, you invalidate an idea after you implement it and see the user's reactions. Before then, you cannot know if it will succeed or not.

I named fb as a counterexample. I think you can definitely succeed without validating or invalidating your idea first, but it's a much bigger risk, and you are building a very specific kind of company. How many facebooks and twitters are there in the world?

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#9

Post by emiller829 » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:52 PM UTC

I'm not sure I'd want to take any advice that suggests starting off a business relationship by lying to the potential customer.

(Re: "Identify your target customer. COLD email 20 of them and offer to pay THEM to use your product if they are willing to offer some feedback. See how many respond. If anybody responds, tell them that the offer is oversubscribed and that it is no longer available. See how many of those people still ask about the product.")

Re: How to (In)validate Your Startup Idea

#10

Post by brlewis » Fri, Dec 17, 2010, 8:52 PM UTC

Lying to potential customers is cheap in terms of development time, but costly in terms of reputation.