Vision & Idea Evaluation

Every business idea, no matter how good, depends on how well it is nurtured, developed, and ultimately transformed into a money-making venture. How do you know how good your idea is? It starts with an inspiration. It is fueled by passion. It becomes a reality only with hard work and persistence. An idea is fickle. It will tease you, seduce you, and even deceive you. Before you devote a significant portion of your life to it, be sure it will be worth it…. even if it does not succeed. Because it likely will not.

Contrary to common perception, whether or not your idea can be transformed into a viable, sustainable business, is not entirely within your control. There are too many variables. Good ideas fail, even with sufficient resources and flawless execution. Bad ideas are miraculously transformed into profitable businesses with dumb luck. As you begin this journey, there are some things to think about and some things to do that will increase your odds of a favorable outcome.

Things To Think About and Decide

Don’t proceed unless you are truly passionate about the idea. Your motivation should be more than just money. You should also be motivated by the possibility of making a difference, creating something new (or better), and the opportunity to learn and grow.

Think about it as a “project,” not as a business. Once the project achieves certain milestones (see below), you can turn it into a business. Decide how much time and money you can devote to the idea.

Think about how the eventual product will scale. Can it be replicated and sold on a mass scale?

Decide what has to happen and when for it to continue. Decide what would kill the idea, for you to cut your losses and move on to another idea.

Think about how to simplify the idea. Too much has to happen before anything can happen, so the simpler it is, the more likely it can be done. If your idea requires a lot of complexity or ongoing customizations to serve the market, think hard about its viability and your ability to make it happen.

Decide on the THING that makes it unique or better and be able to articulate that within 15 seconds. What’s your “secret sauce?” What is the one THING that customers will absolutely LOVE about the product? What is the pain point you are addressing? Why hasn’t anyone else brought it to market?

Decide on ONE revenue stream. Use that to guide you on exactly what it is you are building and in what order.

Think about your ability to build the product and bring it to market without any outside capital. Do you have the capital, or access to friends and family capital? Most investors don’t invest in ideas or to build product, they invest in traction and expansion.

Things To Do

Collect and organize data on the market, competitive solutions, and product development costs. Figure out who is really going to buy it and how much they will pay for it.

Set up Google Alerts for keywords that describe your product or market. Follow blogs that cover your market.

Checkout Go2Web20 to see if there are similar sites on the market as the one you have in mind. Search the Apple, Android and Amazon App Stores to see if there are similar apps as the one you have in mind.

Organize an informal working group of friends and colleagues to be your sounding board. Seek out as many different perspectives on the idea and potential business as you can.

Develop a 1 minute pitch that clearly articulates the product, the market size and need, and your unique advantage.

Develop a non-functional model of the product that you can show people. This can be an illustration, PowerPoint presentation, or other visual.

Survey potential users of the product. Have them rank in order the features that are most important to them.

Vision & Idea Evaluation

Things To Think About and Decide

Things To Do

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Good Startup Karma!

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