Three founders came to me last month. All had the same problem.

Months of building. No customers. No validation. Just hope.

This is the most expensive mistake in startups.

The Pattern

Founder has idea. Idea feels good. Founder starts building.

Weeks pass. Product takes shape. Features get added.

More weeks. Polish. Edge cases. “Just one more thing.”

Finally, launch. Nobody comes. Nobody pays.

Why? Because nobody asked them to build it.

The Real MVP

MVP doesn’t mean “minimum product.”

It means minimum effort to validate demand.

Sometimes that’s a product. Often it’s less:

Landing page: Describe the product. See if people sign up. Concierge service: Do manually what the product would automate. Pre-sales: Sell before building. Deliver later. Fake door test: Add a button for a feature. Count clicks.

All of these validate faster than building.

What I’d Do Now

If I started tomorrow with a new idea:

Day 1: Write the landing page copy. What problem does it solve? For whom? What’s the outcome?

Day 2-3: Build a landing page. Carrd ($19/year) or Webflow (free tier). Email signup form.

Day 4-7: Drive traffic. Post in communities. Run a small ad spend ($100). Ask friends to share.

Day 8: Count signups. Read feedback.

If nobody signs up, pivot or kill.

If people sign up, then build.

Total cost: Under $200. Total time: One week.

But What If Someone Steals My Idea?

They won’t.

Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.

Your landing page doesn’t give away how you’ll build it. It just states the problem and solution.

And frankly, if someone can steal your idea with a landing page’s worth of information, your idea wasn’t defensible anyway.

The Psychology Problem

Building feels productive. Validation feels scary.

Building means progress bars and commits and visible output.

Validation means rejection. People saying no. Finding out you’re wrong.

Of course we prefer building.

But building without validation is just expensive procrastination. You’re avoiding the scary question: Will anyone pay for this?

Case Study: The Wrong Way

A founder I know spent 8 months building a project management tool. Solo developer. Impressive work.

Feature-rich. Beautiful design. Technically solid.

Zero customers after launch.

Why? The market has 50 project management tools. His wasn’t different enough. No one needed another one.

Eight months. Probably $100,000 in opportunity cost. Because he never asked if people wanted it.

Case Study: The Right Way

Another founder had an idea for invoicing software. Before writing code:

1. Posted on Reddit describing the tool
2. Collected 40 email signups in a week
3. Called 10 of them to understand the problem
4. Pre-sold 5 annual subscriptions at 50% off

Then he built. With $2,500 in revenue before writing a line of code.

Different outcomes. Same amount of time.

How to Validate

Talk to potential customers

Not friends. Not family. People who would actually pay.

“If this existed, would you use it?” is the wrong question.

“What do you currently pay for to solve this problem?” is better.

Look for existing spend

People pay for solutions to real problems. If no one pays for anything in your space, that’s a red flag.

Test willingness to pay

Signups mean interest. Credit cards mean commitment.

Pre-sales. Deposits. Waitlist with payment details.

If people won’t commit money, they’re not serious.

The Bottom Line

Build less. Validate more.

Your idea is probably wrong in some way. All ideas are. Validation helps you find out how before you’ve invested months.

The founders who win aren’t the best builders. They’re the ones who learn fastest.

And learning means testing, not assuming.