Validation is figuring out if there's a real problem that's painful enough that people will pay you to solve it.
You need to systematically test your assumptions about the market and what your potential customers actually need. And no, asking your best friend doesn't count as validation. You need to talk to people who would actually pull out their credit card and pay for your solution.
Validating your startup idea isn't just a nice-to-have process - it's absolutely crucial to succeed, by definition. If your project succeeds or fails, and if you skipped validation before developing it, then all you did was validate after building it. You might’ve wasted tons of time and effort building something that could have been validated from the start. You want to avoid wasting months (or years) building something nobody wants. I've seen too many founders dive headfirst into development without checking if there's actually a market for their solution. Don't be that guy, or gal.
Enthusiasm ≠ Real Demand. What I've learned is that real validation only comes from genuine commitment. Someone willing to put down money, spend significant time, or effort - that's what matters. Everything else is just polite conversation and noise.
Bad data is worse than no data; “I would definitely buy that.”
Instead of chasing vague interest, you need to focus on finding people who have such a burning problem that they'll commit resources to solving it. That is validation.
Let me share an example from one of our first projects, Aitino, our multi-agent platform. We had built up excitement in a Discord community of about 50 members in a couple weeks, who all seemed genuinely interested in using our platform. But when we actually launched? Only one person from the entire group actually signed up and used the platform. This taught us a crucial lesson: validation isn't about collecting positive feedback, it's about finding people who have such a pressing need that they're willing to commit resources to solve it. You need true buy in.
It’s about ensuring you have a viable path to reach potential customers. If you can't locate and engage with your target market during the validation phase, what makes you think you’ll find them after building a full product? It's a strong indicator that your startup idea is incomplete. The ability to find and connect with potential customers (distribution) is just as important as the solution you're building.
Many founders, including us at one point, have made the mistake of building products in isolation, only to discover they have no efficient way to reach their intended users. For example, with one of our first projects, Aitino, we initially targeted solopreneurs, but realized quickly that we have no accessible way of reaching this audience. We pivoted to focus on AI engineers who needed our platform for iterating their multi-agent teams faster.
By focusing on audience identification early, you can validate both your solution and your distribution strategy simultaneously.
Firstly, you need to deeply understand where your target audience eats, breaths, and sleeps. Are they active on specific subreddits? Do they attend particular events? What Facebook or Discord groups are they in?
While I believe ads are super helpful in any SaaS validation and marketing strategy, many founders make the mistake of using ads as a shortcut to find their audience, when I believe that only after you know where they hang around, that will ads prove helpful.
It’s a spray-and-pray vs targeted approach. By first understanding where your audience naturally congregates, you can then use ads strategically to reach them with messaging that resonates, rather than blindly broadcasting to everyone and hoping something sticks. If you’ve got money like that then good on ya.
Engaging with your target audience requires a mix of authenticity, consistency, and value delivery. Start by participating genuinely in their online communities - whether that's contributing to discussions on Reddit, sharing insights on LinkedIn, or creating helpful content on platforms where they spend time. Don't just broadcast your message. Share your expertise freely, ask thoughtful questions, and most importantly, listen to their responses. After building some level of trust through public channels, can look to take it into the DMs.
When you team up with established businesses or influencers that already serve your target market, you can tap into their audience without having to research and build everything from scratch. Not only does this save you precious time and money in validation, but you also get instant credibility by associating with trusted names in the industry as well as a secured channel for selling your SaaS.
Cal AI provides a great example of an effective partnership strategy. With over 150 fitness and wellness influencers in their network, they were able to within months scale to $1M monthly recurring revenue—monthly! Their partnerships include custom features for influencers, referral code systems, and co-created content. This model has helped them achieve significant user growth while maintaining a cost-effective $5 CPM (cost per thousand views). The key to their success was ensuring mutual value - influencers get exclusive features and commission-based incentives, while Cal AI gets authentic promotion, access to targeted audiences, and insights for the app from the influencers.
Your best bet is to offer something that perfectly complements what your potential partner already does, without stepping on their toes. When you get this right, your partner will actually want to promote your solution to their customers - essentially becoming your first distribution channel. It's a win-win situation that can jumpstart the validation and marketing process. Our team at Startino plans on launching a large scale influencer outreach campaign to look for influencers that already have an idea in mind! Will post an article on that soon.
Building for an audience you deeply understand (because you're part of it) gives you a massive advantage. When you're solving a problem you personally experience, you have instant access to valuable insights that could take weeks or even months to gather otherwise. You know the pain points, you understand the context, and you can quickly validate whether a solution actually works, then also rapidly iterate based on your own experience.
But there's a catch - you need to validate that your problem isn't unique to just you. While being your own customer is the best starting point (in my humble opinion), you must confirm that enough other people share the specific-yet-general (niche-yet-flexible) pain point.
I had the idea to build a weight-lifting tracking app.
When it comes to quantitative validation, you've got two powerful tools at your disposal: paid ads and landing pages. I know spending money on ads might feel counter-intuitive when you're just testing an idea. You have to evaluate what’s more valuable to you: time spent finding and reaching out to potential customers versus spending a bit of money upfront to ship faster. Think of it as an investment. If you really nail down your audience by being niche and truly understanding your avatar (their behaviours, their pains, and their online behavior patterns), then your ad spend will be much more effective. You'll get higher conversion rates and lower costs because you're targeting the right people with the right message.
Let me be straight with you about waitlists - they're not what they used to be. While they might have been effective in the past, modern audiences have seen too many vaporware products come and go. They're more likely to sign up for multiple waitlists without any real commitment to using the product.
While that said, I still believe waitlists can be effective if combined with emphasis on the correct objective. You’re not after their sign-up, you’re after the potential conversation that comes after the signup (using their email or number).
When someone signs up, your follow-up email/message (WhatsApp is great for conversions!) shouldn't just be a generic "thanks for joining" message. Use it to initiate a dialogue about their specific needs and pain points. This approach turns a passive signup into a validation opportunity. For example, when someone joins your waitlist, send them a personalized email asking about why they signed for your waitlist? or what specifically drew them to your solution.
Customer interviews (I call them customer conversations) are the cornerstone of qualitative validation. While they require more time and effort than quantitative methods, and can easily be misleading, these conversations can uncover invaluable details.
Following the principles of "The Mom Test" by Rob Fitzpatrick, here's a crucial tip: don't lead with your solution. This helps avoid confirmation bias. Instead, focus on understanding their daily challenges and frustrations. Think about it - if you're asking someone "Would you use this amazing product that does X?", they're likely to say yes just to be nice. But if you ask them "What's the most annoying part of getting inspiration for the classical music that you compose?", its much more likely you’ll get invaluable insights.
Your goal is to uncover the raw, unfiltered truth about their pain points. Ask open-ended questions like "Walk me through your typical workflow" or "What tasks take up most of your time?" These questions reveal actual problems worth solving, not just polite nods of agreement. In theory, it would be amazing if the customer doesn’t even know you’re building a solution! Perhaps you’re researching for your PhD 🤓…
More details on conducting effective customer conversations in Section 6.
When resegmenting an existing market, you're essentially taking a proven business model and adapting it for a specific niche that's currently underserved. This approach reduces validation risk since you already know there's demand for the core solution - you're just tailoring it for a particular audience. For example, while Mailchimp serves the general email marketing market, a specialized email marketing platform for restaurants could focus on reservation confirmations, menu updates, and loyalty program management. You leverage the existing market research, and also by targeting an underserved niche, you can create a more focused, specialized solution that better meets the specific needs of your target audience. Great recipe for success in my opinion.
When you're building something you personally need, like the weight-lifting tracker I mentioned in section 3, you've got a built-in advantage - you're your own first customer. This means you inherently understand the problem space and can validate solutions quickly based on your own experience. But here's the catch - you need to be careful not to build something so specific to your needs that it becomes too niche for others to find the same value in it.
Here's a concrete example: let's say you're a content creator who needs a tool to automatically generate video thumbnails for ant videos. While this solves your specific need, the key question is: "Are there enough other content creators facing this same challenge?" Having yourself as the first user is valuable for testing and feedback, but you need to verify that enough (enough = whatever enough means to you, could be 10 or 10,000) of others would pay for this solution to build a viable business.
The decision between Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and no-MVP really comes down to your resources and risk tolerance. If you or a friend is able to quickly and cheaply build an MVP, then that might give you faster, more concrete feedback than months of customer interviews. However, if development would be expensive or time-consuming, it's smarter to validate through the methods aforementioned.
See Section 7 for more details on MVPs.
This approach works well because it requires real investment from potential users while still being low-risk for them. When someone is willing to put down a deposit, it shows they're genuinely interested in your solution and aren't just being polite. You can even frame it as "reserve your spot and get a custom feature built for your needs" to make it more attractive.
If you're thinking "who would pay a stranger for a promise?" - well, people with their hair on fire. When customers are experiencing urgent, painful problems that are costing them time or money right now, they're much more likely to commit funds upfront. The more pressing the pain point, the easier it becomes to secure early commitments.
Paid beta programs serve two crucial purposes: they validate real market demand through actual payments, and they create a feedback loop with invested users. When someone pays for early access, even at a discount, they're more likely to provide thorough, actionable feedback because they have skin in the game, but it’s not so attractive for customers since they’re likely going to have to wait at least a few weeks to reap their rewards.
This approach can be particularly effective when you're entering a new market or industry. By partnering with established players, you gain instant credibility and access to their customer base. Ideally they are also a potential customer, that way they’re able to give you insights straight away before going to their audience. But remember The Mom Test!
Remember, you're not there to pitch - you're there to listen and learn. The Mom Test teaches us that by focusing on specific past behaviors rather than hypothetical futures, we can better avoid the confirmation bias that often plagues customer interviews.
As someone that has been on both ends of customer interviews numerous times, I can safely say how frustrating it is when someone invites me to chat and starts to pitch and present their solution.
You: Mom, I have a business idea. Do you have 5 minutes?
Mom: Of course, dear.
You: You like your iPad and use it a lot?
Mom: Sure, it’s great.
You: Would you buy a cookbook app?
Mom: I love cookbooks, sounds nice. Does it come with vegan recipes? Or something special for Xmas?
You: Mom, I have a business idea. Do you have 5 minutes?
Mom: Of course, dear.
I'm proud of you, and I don’t want to hurt your feelings.
You: You like your iPad and use it a lot?
Mom: Sure, it’s great.
I use it to check email on the sofa.
You: Would you buy a cookbook app?
Mom: I love cookbooks, sounds nice. Does it come with vegan recipes? Or something special for Xmas?
Well, I have plenty of cookbooks. I don’t need a computer in my kitchen – it might get dirty! But hey, if my kid made it, I’ll try. App? I never bought an app. Don’t you need to enter your credit card for that? Let me try to change the subject.
You:
Here’s my take on The Mom Test that we use to optimize our customer conversations (sales calls are very similar!):
Remember: If they hesitate to commit resources (time or money), either the problem isn't urgent enough or they're not your target audience.
When deciding between MVP and pre-MVP validation approaches, it's crucial to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis. If you or your team possesses strong technical capabilities, building an MVP might be more time and cost-effective than extensive validation cycles.
Evaluate the resources required for each path:
The fundamental principle here is risk management. Whether you choose MVP or pre-MVP validation, the goal remains the same: to validate your core assumptions with the least amount of wasted resources.
When validating your SaaS idea, you must be cautious about feedback from friends and family. While they mean well, their enthusiasm often comes from a place of support rather than true insight. Your friends might say "That's a great idea!" but what you really need is someone saying "I'll pay for this right now because it solves my pressing problem."
Remember, your goal is to find people who are actively experiencing the problem you're trying to solve and are willing to put their money where their mouth is. Don't waste time collecting opinions from those who'll never be your customers.
One of the biggest mistakes in SaaS validation is not discussing pricing early enough. While many founders fear that talking money will scare away potential customers, it's actually a decent filter. If someone isn't willing to have a serious conversation about pricing, or balks at numbers that would make your business viable, they're telling you something important about their level of pain and your solution's perceived value. Perhaps they’re not your ideal customer? Or maybe this audience literally can’t afford the solution.
A crucial aspect of distribution validation is testing your acquisition channels before building extensively. Start small - run targeted ads to measure click-through rates, conduct outreach campaigns to gauge response rates, or test partnership models with minimal commitment. This gives you real data about customer acquisition costs and channel effectiveness before investing heavily in product development.
Theoretical interest or polite enthusiasm from potential users isn't enough - you need concrete evidence of demand through actual commitments before investing significant development resources. “Maybe later” is not a real “yes.” A real “yes” is money down or time put in.
The people that are too ignorant to realize they have a bad idea are like those friends that keep dating a girl even though all the red flags are blaring—like let go bro. While passion is important, being inflexible can blind you to valuable feedback and prevent necessary pivots. Ideas are one in a billion. Just take more showers or meditate. Andrew Huberman talks about how creativity often flourishes in non-linear work phases, and likely that’s spot on to when you had this exact idea that you’re trying to validate.
If you're serious about building a startup that actually works, validation isn't optional—it's the foundation. Skip it, and you’re gambling with your time, money, and sanity. But get it right, and you'll have a real, paying market before you even write a line of code. Want to avoid building something nobody wants? Join Startino in a roadmap creation session.
