Idea validation destroys my motivation and seems to fly in the face of entrepreneurial "faith"

What you’re experiencing is the normal tension between belief and validation. Most founders don’t succeed through pure “blind faith”—they validate in small, practical steps even if it doesn’t look that clean from the outside.

Instead of evaluating the whole idea, focus on one assumption at a time (problem, demand, or willingness to switch). It reduces mental overload and gives clearer signals to act on.

You don’t need to stop believing—just shift from “this will work” to “let’s test if this works.”

If this feels like the stage you’re in, check out Foundersbar’s market validation service, it’s built exactly to help founders get clarity before committing to full build mode.

I'll find a competitor, a hard problem with the supply or demand side, regulations, or unclear demand.

I think that's what you are doing wrong. "Validate" your idea must mean one and only one thing: find someone willing to pay for your product.

Competitors, theoretical obstacles, logical criticism, regulations, all of that is completely irrelevant. Work every minute to allow you to ask potential customers of they buy your product

Mike,

It is nerve-wracking to think that our idea has a fatal flaw.

There is an emotion here that we need to name so we can talk about it. It's fear. We all feel it, it's very real and it can dominate our decision-making.

Giving in to fear is easier. And we can get away with not validating all our ideas closely. There is a chance of success even with poor validation, as we learn on those podcasts like you said. So we indulge on willful ignorance.

But individually, we shouldn't simply think that success is possible and that it worked for some people. What we want is to actively increase our individual chances of success.

The literature shows that entrepreneurs that validate their ideas have higher chances of success, although it is also possible to over-validate and waste time doing it[1].

I worked on dozens of ideas in the past year and I improved my way of dealing with the fear of seeing an idea rejected. For me, the core evolution was to invalidate ideas before I felt too attached to them.

My first projects were (poorly) invalidated with months-long coding prototypes. Huge waste of time and huge emotions involved when the idea needed to be thrown away. It took me so long to abandon those plans because I gave in to fear of learning they were bad.

After 4 or 5 of those prototypes I realized that it would save me time to talk to people while prototyping the ideas. I still had to deal with the fear. It was a slow learning process. One day I finally applied what I read on books so many times and I decided to validate UI mock-ups for products before I fell in love with the idea. I realized I could test ideas in a fraction of the time and without so much stress.

That later evolved to me testing only the messaging of an idea. I would talk to someone in my target audience and just explain what I'm doing. This let me evolve my ideas so quickly that very soon I was able to pre-sell an idea product. I iterated on the message so profoundly and quickly that I found something that needed to exist.

The things that worked for me:

• validated ideas using faster, simpler methods, before being attached to each idea too much
• recognize the fear and feel it, but don't let it stop me every time

Hope you have success on your projects!
Yves

[1] The Limits of the Lean Startup Method, https://hbr.org/2016/03/the-limits-of-the-lean-startup-method

Hi,
If you provide a little more context about your current idea (or a past one), I can give you an initial read on whether it is a good idea. IMO, good ideas meet certain criteria.

• The problem is recognized. We don't have to spend our time convincing people the problem is real.
• The problem itself is solvable with existing resources. We don't have to discover a new branch of mathematics or solve time travel in order to solve the problem.
• People want the problem solved. You'd be surprised at how often this isn't true. Certain people have a stake in keeping the status quo and they are not interested in a solution, even if they tell you they are.
• Using your solution is easier than using the current solution (which is sometimes a crappy solution or no solution at all). Brick & mortar banks seem to be masters at leveraging this - you get stuck with them and then the switching cost is too high. So you live with the status quo of a crappy bank with crappy products
• The solution doesn't rely on software to change people's behavior. Just don't do this. It doesn't work.
• There's enough room in the problem space to compete. The world doesn't need another iphone case or set of earbuds or wallpaper app.
• People are willing to trade their hard-earned money to make the pain of the problem go away. Nuff said. :)

THere's probably more, but I'll stop there.

Hope this is helpful to you in some way.

Cheers,
-Pmox2018

Mike, I can relate.

I'm currently working through validating an idea and it seems to be diminishing my excitement. The truth is, the whole reason why we try to validate ideas is because we can blind ourselves with what we think may be an awesome idea - but we may be missing something obvious that it would be nice to know before investing a lot of time into it.

This week I came to a new approach. First, validate that the problem your idea solves, is actually a problem. Then see if there is market for it and if people are willing to pay that.

Here is my outline:

1. Validate the Problem
2. Validate the Market
3. Validate the Product (fun part)
4. Validate the Willingness to Pay

Hope this helps!

Partnering with someone else is also not a bad idea. It is difficult to stay focus and work on a single idea for a long time. But if you are a team of 2 it may help. It definitely helped me.

I think you're mixing up "idea" with "solution". This is not uncommon.

For me, an idea is a tiny part of a process, the very start of solving a problem. It has no value. Despite how it may feel to you.

Solutions are rarer than ideas. They often take hundreds of failed ideas to form. In my opinion, our job as entrepreneurs is to test ideas, as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible. Throwing away the flawed ones, cobbling together those that seem to not break.

It feels wrong to start with, like wearing your shoes on the opposite feet. You're programmed to believe that ideas are valuable. Just having one makes you smart. This is a lie. It is so much safer, emotionally, to believe in your ideas than to break them. They are an extension of your intellect. Nobody wants to prove themselves stupid.

A better mindset is the scientific one. Good science creates a hypothesis (idea), then designs tests to disprove it. I take your point that belief is important though. But if you choose to believe in something, believe in your ability to learn from mistakes. That way, you'll find it much easier to be satisfied with either outcome. Broken or not.

Building good solutions is hugely valuable and rewarding. I'd encourage you to persist with your testing of ideas. Not everyone gets to push themselves like this. Its one of the elements of entrepreneurship I find most rewarding.

Good luck!

The point isn't to validate an "idea." Ideas are fantastic, they're inspiring, but they're also fleeting. If you can get a firm understanding of what problem you're solving (or what super power you're providing to customers), you can then focus your idea-generation on solutions to that problem. Caring deeply about solving a real problem is how you avoid losing faith.

Keep caring deeply, but focus on caring about the problem you're solving instead of your specific solution.

Thanks for sharing your problem! I was also at the same point a few times. Idea validation is nevertheless a very important point to find out before you waste a lot of money and time if your product has what it takes to succeed. I have found a very helpful framework for this, maybe it will help you: https://miro.com/miroverse/startup-idea-validation-framework/

Mike,
It is all a matter of perception. Validation is helpful but is not always the final answer. Do you solve a problem? Will people pay for it? If so how much? You may think your idea solves a problem and it may. Is the problem big enough? You may also be looking at this as a binary issue. It may need alterations or a pivot even prior to a launch. Validation like beta testing is just pointing out bumps or roadblocks. It doesn't mean they cant be avoided or worked around hell they may never even happen it is just to make you aware it is possible. Your ideas may be outstanding but odds are they are not right from the box. It is only constructive criticism and warning lights. It is not stop and abandon the project. Look at Amazon. Books were on there way out. Yet delivery of them was really crazy. But if it worked it was a proven model or platform to deliver small insignificant items. The market will tell you. It may require work and launch and capital. Yet even if it fails you learn something. Since you seem to have many ideas it may be ok to fail. Most of us if not all have failed at something. If not then ur name is Midas.

Mike, I just wanted to share that you are not alone with this. I also feel the dissonance during the validation phase. I have a tendency to get really really excited about things, which is awesome, it is a strong drive BUT when you are told you have to be ready to let it go if it is not working... That's tough and it's hard to have both feelings happening, the excitement and the being-ready-to-let-go.

Others have much more to say in terms of untangling these feelings. Keep up the good work! :)

Thanks for sharing this. What you're feeling is natural and you'll learn to work through it. It just takes time and determination.

Hey Mike,

You know, I was stuck on the same thing as well. I would always have a cool idea, then realize that there is something similar on the market already or that I just don't feel as good about it as I did before.

The important part when validating is to go out to your customers directly. This is the only thing that counts. Ask them directly if they would use something like that and pay for it.

Even if you only get a handful of yes, go for it and do it. Don't mind if there is something similar on the market (PayPal v. Stripe), if there are regulations (Uber, Bird, Jump) or a hard problem (literally everything). Make sure that there is demand, then go for it.

Hey, I get your view totally. Working on some sideprojects and developing products at a startup made me learn a lot and I'm still not there, but...

If something exists already that doesn't mean you got to strike it through. If everyone would do that there would only be one fork manufacturer, one TV manufacturer, one... You get it.

You can build something that already exists and you can still succeed.

The importance lies in identifying your market, your target audience and getting insights in how they think, what they'd expect from a product like yours and how your version would help them getting more value from it.

I can take a product from the USA and copy it and run it for Europe. I'm European so maybe I know the market better and make aspects fit better (add gdpr compliance, shouting that of the rooftop, making shopping fysical products between European countries easier,..)

If you create a solution or tool that adds value by doing something different, better or create a need that wasn't there before, that will lost likely happen because of two reasons:

#1 sheer luck (lucky strike)
#2 you actually understand your targeted customers & market

Option 1 is coming by at podcasts from time to time.

Option two is realized by going through incubators and startup programs with people who know how to find an audience and pluck their minds. Or it is done by throwing your ideas at people and see what sticks. This takes multiple trial&error iterations.
That's why validating (with wire frames, mockups, napkins, whatever) instead of actually coding an MVP is so important. Working like that will forge you into a semi automatic idea shooter.

The more you can try and validate the more likely you'll find something that sticks.

It doesn't come easy (unless #1 kicks in), it will take perseverance, commitment and learning by failing. But you'll learn from it each time, get faster at steering into the right direction and get better at this.

If nothing at all, you ARE on IH, so you learned to find the people that know your situation. Learn by talking and asking these questions and Shari g your doubts. It all adds up to the cooking pot for what will evolve into a product creator's mindset.

Now go and draw yourself some wireframes for your top 3 ideas within 2 hours and get feedback on them and start with that going forward.

Find.out.how.you.can.add.value. It's an adventure waiting for you to take part 😎✌🏻️

What's there to lose? 💪🏻🚀🔥

Asking for peoples email is a big commitment

Well I guess you can choose not to do it, but in my opinion i'd rather validate my idea due to the fact I don't want to waste large amounts of my time, that is more painful to me than having to think of a new idea.

Maybe you just need to think of better ideas? The issue here seems to be that you're loosing faith because you're building a case against your idea, but if your idea is good you shouldn't be able to build a case against it because it should pass validation and thus work.

Or maybe it's the way you're trying to validate it? for example you say "I'll find a competitor" as if it's a bad thing? I sometimes like to find a competitor as that validates there's probably someone out there making money with what I want to do, so there's probably a market, the issue becomes if the market is too crowded with no way you can offer a different service to shake up the market then there is no entry point

I get that a lot of entrepreneurs can be lucky but at the same time, they probably don't let other peoples opinions on if their business is viable or not sway them because they have done their own research

Yeah, that's a wall of text but hopefully some of it helps

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