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Validating Ideas? Worth It?

professorfig

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Hi everyone!

Not sure if this is the right section to be posting this, feel free to move it.

Finished the Great Rat Race Escape and it's opened my eyes to all the mistakes I made with a previous business.

I've been floundering around with what idea to pursue and many books I've read has talked about idea validation. I've been reading one recently with how to build a waiting list for a product.

It struck me as a main focus on validating the idea was to get seed money to then building it. Getting VC cash strikes me as having a job with extra steps. Maybe that is wrong? Let me know.

As mentioned in the book, cash is the best validator of all of them. If I had a physical product idea, I'd use KickStarter or IndieGogo to get pre-orders in. Struck me with some of this idea validation stuff as a "action fake". Take the KickStarter approach, I might need to generate some 3D models and renders and possibly 3D print a prototype to show it off and how it solves the problem versus putting a website together and running some ads to it before even starting to build the product in the hope of getting investment cash to build it.

One of the ideas I have is an app. I've built them in the past but rusty at the moment. Re-learning the framework and maybe spending a month or two on an MVP and launching seems like the logical step. From there I can advertise it and get real users onboard and testing it out. I only have time to lose.

Or should I go ahead and validate the idea? They say 500-1000 emails is a good amount to then start building the MVP.

Wondering if you more seasoned entrepreneurs have any advice or input on the topic.

SaaS is a popular topic at the moment. Seen people talk about straight-up copying the biggest players in the market and launching an MVP with their most popular features at a reduced cost to get users onboard.

There's a stat at the moment like 200 new AI products and services are coming to the market every week.

Is it better to build or validate?

Let me know your thoughts!
 
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MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
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Is it better to build or validate?

Both.

You can also validate by just looking at what is available on the market, and how popular something is.

But yes, it can be an action-fake. It also can give you some insight into how to reach potential customers, before the product is even built. A lot of times the validation process uncovers problems in marketing and reaching the potential market.

Like many questions on the forum, the answer tends to be gray. Or basically, "it depends."
 

professorfig

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But yes, it can be an action-fake. It also can give you some insight into how to reach potential customers, before the product is even built. A lot of times the validation process uncovers problems in marketing and reaching the potential market.

Like many questions on the forum, the answer tends to be gray. Or basically, "it depends."

Wow! Thank you! Never expected a reply from yourself and once again, you've opened my eyes!

I hadn't thought of it from the way of approaching the target audience before so I guess the best approach is a bit of both: take action and build an MVP and validate it by getting it in front of your target audience
 

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