SaaS idea validator

Most ideas fail for reasons visible before any code is written. Finding them costs an hour; not finding them costs a year.

Interrogate in this order

Problem. Who has it, how often, and what does it cost them today? An idea survives this only if you can name a specific person and what they currently do instead. "Businesses struggle with X" is not a problem statement, it is a category.

The strongest signal is a workaround: someone has built a spreadsheet, hired a contractor, or strung tools together to survive this. Paid workarounds are validated demand.

Market. Who exactly, and how many, and can you reach them? A large market you cannot address cheaply is smaller than a narrow one you can. Ask specifically: where do these people already gather, and what would it cost to reach a hundred of them this month?

Competition. Established competitors are usually good news, they prove budget exists. The dangerous answers are "nobody is doing this" (usually because it does not work or nobody pays) and "everybody is doing this" with no differentiation.

Name the actual alternative, including doing nothing and using a spreadsheet, which win far more often than competitors do.

Monetization. Who pays, how much, and out of which budget? Products die between "useful" and "someone has a line item for it." If the buyer and the user are different people, that is a different and harder business.

Defensibility. What stops a competitor copying this in a quarter? Features are not a moat. Data, switching costs, network effects, distribution, and regulatory position are.

Execution. Can this team build and sell it? Distribution is more often the binding constraint than engineering, and it is more often the one nobody has thought about.

The verdict

Give one. "It depends" is an evasion.