Here’s 3 ways to validate an idea before spunking your hard earned cash up the wall like I did:
👉 Throw up a simple landing page
Simple is good. Simple is cheap. This approach stops you wasting time building anything or hiding from the reality that the idea may never work by spending time on a logo or brand or whatever.
Just throw up a simple landing page for people to join a waitlist. Tell them what problem you’ll solve for them, how you’ll solve it and that they need to join the waitlist if they’re interested.
Get it up live. It shouldn’t take you longer than 2 hours (seriously, there are SO many tools to help you make landing pages and waitlists these days that if you’re spending longer than that, you’re just dodging the reality your idea might be toilet. DM me if you need any recommendations).
Don’t get many sign ups? Bin the idea and move on.
Get a decent amount of interest? Then you might just have something. Try and do a few deep-dive interviews with some of the waitlist to firm up some of your ideas.
👉 Run an ‘introductory offer’
A true acid test for any idea is will anyone actually pay for it but it can be hard when it isn’t fully formed. So, offer an introductory offer where they’re getting a heavily discounted price in recognition that you’re still honing your service and you’ll appreciate their feedback during the process.
We did this when we pivoted GoFounder - we offered an introductory price of £99 (reduced from our intended £399 price). We got 10 people signed up, paying for the service whilst we honed it.
It was a double win. We were getting paid the test our idea and also knowing whether people were actually willing to pay for it.
After a few months, we explained that the introductory offer was coming to an end and the price was going up. 8 of the 10 people stayed on!
👉 Test it with your socials
This one isn’t as good as the other two, IMO but still a useful exercise in getting you towards even launching a landing page or running an introductory offer.
Start posting content about the pain points your idea solves. Is it resonating?
If multiple content about the pain points bombs, then I’d bet my left testicle that your idea will bomb too.
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I see so many people validating ideas and brands themselves - only to see it fall to pieces within the initial months.
Businesses aren’t built in your brain.
So, get them out of your brain and into the wild.
It might be wild out there but it’s the only true test.
Need help? Just shout ✌️
This post was originally shared by Eddie Whittingham on Linkedin.