

Ask HN: How do you validate your startup idea? - isanneh

Do you interview potential users to see if they&#x27;ll actually use your product?  If yes, how or where do you find them?
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Bayesianblues
Regarding how or where, the specifics and actionable advice is often domain
specific, so if you have more details I would be glad to comment. As to
interviewing potential users/customers if they will use your product, from
personal experience I can say be wary about overweighting based on small
sample size, and also be guarded against taking as proof of concept the assent
of friends, family, or even non-anonymous users who would be incentived to
provide positive feedback (even if subconsciously). For initial adopters,
privilege "action over talk" in your decision calculus. Best of luck!!

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isanneh
Sure... I agree it's domain specific... I have several ideas that need
validation... So basically, I was thinking if people would use a service that
would help them validate their ideas.

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pcharles
Quickly create a landing page using something like Unbounce then drive some
traffic to it ie. spend $100 on AdWords. Offer something like free access to
your product or service for the 1st 100 signups. If you get traction, you'll
know you've got something. Then you can use those initial signups as a beta
group.

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gremlinsinc
I'm in a startup accelerator, and I can attest validation is one of the most
important components they drill into us. Do whatever you can get in front of
people and at the very least get people to say 'yes I want to use your
platform', the more passionate the better, but even better than that is get
signed contracts/deals before launch, or people who are passionate or excited
about your app.

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james678
Its a good idea to first find where your customers hang out. Generally this
would be at a handful of forums. The next step is to hang at those forums and
mingle with the community. After a while you can approach people directly or
start a forum thread talking about your idea and to get feedback on whether
people would find it useful.

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isanneh
Yeah I agree... it might be time consuming though...

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27182818284
We had checks signed before the beta version was done. That was good
validation. We reached that point by a lot of footwork and following the
methods (not exactly, but in a general sense) of Steve Blank.

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dennyzhang
I start from my friends. If the POC is done, I broadcast in SNS. And mostly I
examine ideas times and times again by myself. Feel free to contact me by
dennyzhang.com

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isanneh
thanks!

