Untested theory: If people are willing to wait for your idea, it's a bad sign

I just had this thought while reading and thought I would share it here.

A common way to validate an idea is to put up a landing page that captures email addresses of potential customers. The thought is that people must be interested in the product because they're asking to be notified when it's ready.

I think this might actually be a bad sign, not a good one. If people are willing to wait for something, it means that it's not a priority for them – it's not that urgent a need. And if it's not urgent to them before the product is ready, it likely still won't be after it's released.

I think a better sign of validation would be hearing people say "Sorry, I'm not signing up for your mailing list because I need a solution right now."

Those are the people who are going to pay for something – they can't afford to wait. And if they can't afford to wait for your idea, it means your idea is an urgent or desperate need worth paying for.

Of course, I have nothing to back up whether this is true. Just a theory I thought I'd share with everyone.