Prove people will pay before you write code
Compliments are free. Money isn't. Talk to 20 people who have the problem, put up a one-page site, and try to get a deposit or a signed letter before you build a thing. If it works, you start building with customers waiting. If it doesn't, you just saved three months.
- A smoke test and a pre-sale offer, including a letter of intent template
- Kill-or-commit criteria you write down before you see the results, so you can't fool yourself
- One problem statement from Find a SaaS idea people already pay for
- A spreadsheet, a calendar link (Google Calendar booking pages, Calendly or Cal.com free plans all work) and a way to do video calls
- Optional: a domain name (about £10 a year) and £20 to £50 for a small ad test
- Nerve. Talking to strangers is the uncomfortable part. It's also the part that works
Know exactly what you're testing
Validation isn't "do people like it?". It's three specific questions, and you need a yes to all three.
Founders love to skip this mission. Building feels productive. Talking to strangers feels awkward. So they build for three months, launch, and discover the problem wasn't painful enough for anyone to pay. Every hour you spend here saves you ten later.
You're testing three things, in this order:
- Is the problem real and painful for this group? Do they have it, often, and does it cost them something?
- Will they pay to fix it? Not "would they". Will they, at a price that makes a business, and do they have the budget and authority to do it?
- Can you reach them repeatedly? If finding 20 to talk to is a nightmare, finding 200 customers will be worse.
You'll get evidence for each from three sources: conversations (steps 2 to 5), a landing page and smoke test (steps 6 and 7) and a pre-sale (step 8). Then you make a call against criteria you set in advance (step 9).
One idea runs through all of it: opinions are cheap, behaviour is evidence. "I'd definitely use that" costs nothing to say. "Here's my card" or "let me show you the spreadsheet I use for this" costs something. Weight what people do far above what they say.
TipWrite your kill-or-commit criteria (step 9) now, before you talk to anyone. Skim step 9, fill in the template, then come back. Once you've had a few friendly calls you'll be too attached to judge fairly.