Validating the idea
How to validate a business idea before investing
Talk to people who would pay, without selling; then ask for a real commitment, like a reservation or pre-sale. Invest only when someone agrees to pay.
bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published
Validating an idea means finding out, while spending little, whether there are people willing to pay for what you want to offer. It isn't asking your friends whether the idea is good. A friend wants to please; a customer wants to solve a problem. Validation ends when someone truly commits: with money, with time or with their own name.
This matters because lack of a market is one of the most common causes of failure. In CB Insights' 2024 analysis of 431 startups that shut down, 43% had a problem with product-market fit. And Sebrae records that many of those who close opened without knowing their customers' buying habits.
The practical path
- Write down the problem, not the solution. "Working mothers don't have time to take the dog to be groomed" is a problem. "A pet-grooming app" is a solution. Validate the problem first.
- Talk to people who have the problem. Ask about the past, not the future: "How did you solve this last time? How much did you pay? What annoyed you most?". Avoid "would you buy it?", because almost everyone says yes to be polite.
- See the competition as evidence. A competitor isn't a reason to give up: it's often a sign that there is demand. Find out what their customers complain about.
- Create a cheap test. A simple page with a price and a reserve button, a small ad, a menu on WhatsApp, a handmade version of the service. The technical name for this is MVP, the minimum viable product.
- Ask for commitment. Pre-sales, a deposit, a reservation with name and phone number, a letter of intent from a company. If no one commits to anything, the idea isn't validated yet.
- Define success beforehand. For example: "if 5 out of 20 people reserve, I'll go ahead; if no one does, I'll change course." That way you don't reinterpret the result to please yourself.
Validating isn't proving you were right. It's finding out where you were wrong while being wrong is still cheap. Many good ideas are born in their second or third version, after the customer explained what they actually wanted.
How Bairo went through it
Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez says his first business in Brazil was a salon, opened with his partner when their daughter was born. It didn't work out as well as they wanted. But the salon showed him a demand that was right there, in everyday life: caring for the hair and scalp. From it came a hair-treatment course, in a field that only years later found its place in Brazil, trichology.
The idea didn't come from a spreadsheet. It came from close to people who were already paying for something else. It's the cheapest kind of validation there is.
The Method step
This is the page for step 3 of the Seventh Attempt Method: prove it small, with the 14/20 rule. In 14 days, have 20 conversations with potential customers. Don't sell anything; listen. At the end, ask for a small commitment. If none of the 20 commits, go back to step 2 and ask what kind of "no" you received.
Discover the Seventh Attempt Method