
Ask HN: How to validate a market opportunity in a cost effective way? - coo1k
tldr; I’m looking for some kind of signal before I spend significant amount of time building something.<p>I want to build a competing software product for a particular type of small biz. I see in reviews that people are not happy with the leading software provider for that niche. But how should I validate that there is a market opportunity for it and people will actually be interested in it? I tried creating a survey and posting a link on Facebook but nobody took the survey. Survey monkey has a service to get responses(don’t know how they do that) but it’s very costly I.e. $100 for just 100 responses. What are the other cost effective &amp; reliable ways? I’m pretty sure I’m not the first person facing this problem.
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taphangum
Here's the way that I do it. Copied from a previous comment:

Keywords, Google keyword tool, forum chats, Reddit comments. Use tools like
these to find EVIDENCE that people are trying to find a solution (similar to
yours) to the problem they have.

If you find this evidence, it proves that:

1\. There is an inefficiency present (opportunity is simply inefficiency by
another name).

2\. It shows that the problem is painful enough that people are trying to find
a way to solve it. And..

3\. It proves that the customer is aware enough of the problem to be able to
see you as a likely solution (so you don't have to educate them).

I used this process to come up with my own successful ideas. One of which
being: [https://myapptemplates.com](https://myapptemplates.com).

This video will help shed more light on the above
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exMoRoaxKtQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exMoRoaxKtQ)

~~~
coo1k
Thank you for the advice

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DrNuke
Build a database of possible interested parties in your neighborough and cold
call them to get their view and make a pitch... if enough interest arises,
build an mvp and call again for a follow-on in person with your mvp and a
demo.

~~~
coo1k
That’s what I’ll eventually do. Right now I don’t have a product at all. Just
want to evaluate the idea.

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swatcoder
Not having a product yet is good! You don't need a product to make these
calls. The point is to better understand the product they're wishing they had,
which _becomes_ the product you build.

Where the OP said "pitch", take it in the sense that you can pitch these leads
on _you_ and your commitment to meeting their needs. This warms them up for
when you call them again in 2 or 6 or 12 months with that product. They'll be
excited to hear from you and invested in learning more about the product.

~~~
coo1k
Got it. Good advice. I’ll try that.

