The Startup Idea Validation Checklist
Before you spend a single dollar on your idea, answer these 10 questions. If you can't answer at least 7 of them clearly, your idea needs more work.
1 What specific problem are you solving?
Not "I want to build an app." What pain point does it address? Who experiences this problem? How do they solve it today?
2 Who is your specific customer?
"Everyone" is not an answer. Get specific: age, location, income, job title, daily routine. The more specific, the better you can target them.
3 How big is the market?
Search YouTube for your topic. Check Google Trends. Look at Reddit communities. Is demand growing, flat, or declining?
4 Who are your competitors?
List at least 3 alternatives. What do they charge? What do they do well? Where do they fall short? If you can't find any competitors, that's a red flag.
5 What's your unfair advantage?
Why would someone choose you over existing options? Better price? Better features? Better targeting? Unique expertise? If you don't have one, you need to find one.
6 How will you make money?
Subscription? One-time purchase? Freemium? Ads? Be specific about pricing. What will customers pay? How does that compare to costs?
7 What's your startup cost?
How much to build an MVP? Can you bootstrap or do you need funding? What's your monthly burn rate? How many months of runway do you have?
8 How will you get your first 10 customers?
Not "social media" or "word of mouth." Be specific: which subreddit will you post in? Which Facebook groups? Which events will you attend? Which influencers will you reach out to?
9 What's your time to first dollar?
How long from today until you receive your first payment? 30 days? 6 months? A year? The longer it takes, the more runway you need.
10 What's your kill criteria?
Under what conditions would you shut this down? Set clear milestones: "If I don't have 10 paying customers in 90 days, I pivot." This prevents sunk cost fallacy.
What to do with your answers
If you answered 7+ questions clearly, you're in good shape. If not, focus on the gaps before building anything.
The fastest way to validate? Run your idea through GetNoBurn. We pull real demand data from YouTube, Reddit, Google Trends, and Product Hunt — then give you an honest viability score in 60 seconds.
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