How to test an idea before launching a startup?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Determine what problem your idea solves and see if people are willing to pay for your solution.

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Good day! Please tell me where to start if I want to launch my startup. There is an idea and it seems that it is not bad. But how to check if it will go to people, if there is no extra money to make a product, and then understand that no one needs it. Thanks in advance for your reply!

Margarita Guseva

This question (as well as the answer to it) is more complicated than it seems at first glance. But you're thinking the damn right direction if you asked it. I will answer you with leading questions that should give you the right thoughts.

First, figure out what the idea is. Is it a solution to an urgent, massive, human problem, or is it something narrow and specialized? Having understood this, it will be easier to find a target audience that will help to understand the demand for such a solution.

Secondly, everything in the world revolves around money. Is this problem so big that people will be willing to pay constantly to solve it?

If not, why would you do it? Trust me, the passion for “just making a good free tool for people” will pass in a year after a successful launch. And if he is unsuccessful and there is no money, then even faster.

The fact is that most startups fall into the trap of the perceived importance and importance of the problem being solved. But the only proof of the potential success of your idea is the willingness of people to pay money for it. Or people themselves will act as money for you, like in social networks, but this is a separate story.

How do I test my idea before launch? Classic is a good one-page landing page made on the same Tilda website builder, telling about a user problem and its solution through a future product (your idea). Plus, you need a form for collecting email for the launch announcement.

Next, pour the traffic from social networks targeted by the topic on it and look at the conversions. Good CTR The CTR is the number of clicks on your ad divided by the number of impressions. for advertising a product in demand - at the level of 1-3%. If it is like that, we can say that the problem being solved actually takes place in the lives of users.

Further, the classic sales funnel: if at least 20 people out of 100 attracted visitors left their mail, we can say that the project is potentially interesting to the audience.

Some pros even make an early access sale with a 50% discount from the planned tariffs and, without having a product, immediately test the solvency and financial model.

To summarize: make a website describing your idea and future product, not the product itself. Start communicating through comments or by mail left with those who are interested in your idea: they will tell you everything, because they know their problem better than you.