# Saas Idea Validator

Evaluates a software or startup idea against problem, market, competition...

- Repository: https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount (2554 stars)
- Category: Testing
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-18
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill saas-idea-validator -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill saas-idea-validator -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill saas-idea-validator -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill saas-idea-validator -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add cbrock84/headcount`

## Description

Evaluates a software or startup idea against problem, market, competition, monetization, defensibility, and execution, and returns a verdict rather than encouragement. Use this when an idea needs pressure-testing before anyone builds, when deciding whether something is worth pursuing, when assessing competition or willingness to pay, or when a validated idea needs a first-customers and MVP plan. Default to scrutiny; the useful answer is usually the unwelcome one.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# 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.

The rest: https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount/blob/HEAD/plugins/executive/skills/saas-idea-validator/SKILL.md