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24 Comments

An app to validate your idea

I got super meta and thought of an app to validate your idea before writing a single line of code.

Submit your idea, and only build it if you get your target email subscriber count. There can be a marketplace with upvoting to get visibility on ideas.

Have a screenshot of the MVP idea page. What do you think? 🤔

UPDATE

Encouraged by your interest, I went ahead and launched an MVP on Product Hunt. Please upvote and submit your ideas. It might get some eyes today :)

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/i-want-to-build-this

  1. 4

    You could also release that as a widget (the "I will build this if I get X subscribers" part). That way you could pitch creators who already have landing pages and offer an easy way to integrate.

  2. 3

    I think it's a great idea as it targets one of the biggest problems of young entrepreneurs.

    I only see two points worth criticising:

    1. Your validating only half of your product: in the end this is a classical multisided-platform. I can think at least of three different stakeholder groups, with two of them being necessary at least. The main group you're targeting here is of course the makers side. But for your platform to provide value, you additionally need to convince the counter part, the consumer side. One might argue, that all of us can serve for both sides, but in my opinion, I think this just works for certain types of products. To make this work in general, I think it is necessary to have a even more diverse consumer audience.
      If you can solve this and show which value you provide to this platform side, I think you're really on to something!

    2. Monetization: this might sound early to you and of course there are lots of somehow comparable "competitors" for free, like a product hunt or kickstarter. But if you want this not to remain as a side project, you either need to grow so much attention that investors fly at you or you have to solve your monetization streams.

    I hope this feedback helps you :)

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      Yup. I think your first point hits at the heart of the problem. It really only works if it becomes a site like Product Hunt where consumers come to check out new ideas and subscribe.

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        I strongly disagree. As someone validating my business idea, I would be expecting to drive targeted traffic there myself. Being validated by a community of people whose hobby is checking out business ideas, I feel, wouldn't give me a true representation of the potential users in my niche. For example, if I want to test if people interested in sports and gambling would be interested in a my betting app, I would expect to spend a bit of cash to drive a targeted audience to the validation page, rather than expect members of YOUR community, who likely aren't in my demographic, to give me validation.

        The value in your service is in creating a landing/validation page very quickly. You could upsell by offering a custom domain name and logo and demo screenshot uploads. Then it's up to the entrepreneur to send their targeted traffic to the landing page. Or you might even be able to extend your service and revenue streams by finding a way to arbitrage the sending of actual targeted traffic, ie - you take a commission to create adsense or facebook ads and drive niche traffic to the page, which is a common service that marketing agencies provide (hint: outsource).

        A product hunt style community would actually make your service less effective as a validation tool (unless you can build a huge audience covering a huge range if niches and demographics) and would be much harder to actually create.

        I feel like you're onto something with this idea, I think there would be true value in it, by that I mean I would probably pay a few hundred bucks for it, if the traffic was targeted.

        1. 1

          You make an interesting point. Some of those features or on my radar but it's good to know there is demand.

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          This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  3. 2

    The domain name is fun and the concept is cute tho!

    I'm wondering if this platform also applies to existing product that about to launch new features? I am thinking if it's useful for my 2nd launch

  4. 2

    I added my company (which I am building anyway), I feel there is low user engagement. So hopefully, someone upvotes my idea :D
    Good luck

  5. 2

    I think it's a fun gimmick but I don't think it would be that useful.

    If the people browsing have nothing invested, a lot will just go vote for everything.

    Like, if I were to go ask random people "should I build a Mexican restaurant down the street", a ton would say yes, cause how could it hurt them. That information they have given me hasn't meant much though because they aren't invested at all.

    1. 1

      You could be right. But at the end the really good ideas would have highest upvotes. Much like PH, I don't think people randomly just upvote products.

    2. 1

      Yeah I think that's why subscribing is more powerful than an upvote. Still could be an issue.

  6. 2

    that's amazing, great idea, but it needs to be properly differentiated with crowdsourcing platform as they also in a way are idea validator platform and also helps to raise crowd source money and initial set of users, but there is a great potential in this space, best wishes👍🏻

  7. 1

    The audience is vitally critical for your project. So, before posting on PH, or anywhere, you had to create it. The project doesn't have any audience now, so there is no point for makers to post their ideas there. It's a classical problem of chicken and egg, and it can't be solved itself.

  8. 1

    Correct me but I don't see it being any different than having a landing page with an email optin. Sure, the email count bar is something new and appealing but I would suggest you think through it.

    1. 2

      Yeah its similar to other solutions like PH Ship but the gamification aspect similar to kickstarter made me think it had potential.

  9. 1

    I'd definitely use this! How would you help boost the reach of an app idea?

    1. 1

      Yeah I'm not sure but it does have to be something like PH where lots of users organically come to check out ideas and subscribe. Otherwise it's only one side of the marketplace.

      I also see utility in the 'ideator' using it as a landing page and promoting it themselves to validate their idea. So it doesn't have to reply on the marketplace completely for visibility.

      BTW I did launch. Please check it out. :)

      https://www.producthunt.com/posts/i-want-to-build-this

  10. 1

    This sounds awesome!
    Build it Bilal and make it super low effort. I can imagine people, and me personally :), using it to get validation, build waitlists & implement referrals - all in one go !
    Waitlist api (https://getwaitlist.com/) might be good place to start.

    1. 1

      Thanks. Yeah I can see it working with waitlists. Thanks for sharing!

      I did launch on PH so check it out :)
      https://www.producthunt.com/posts/i-want-to-build-this

  11. 1

    I've always thought of this idea, after having experimented with so many things. I think if properly thought upon, it's going to have great potential.
    Though I think what will motivate a person to hand over his email just by seeing an intro page? Some perks may be?

  12. 0

    Is it safe for us to submit an idea and you broadcast it to some people online?

    I mean we knew there's some case like in Kickstarter for example. Some ideas in it stolen by Chinese company back in the past.

    1. 1

      This comes down to you...some people are not going to be comfortable sharing their ideas. Others will.

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      Looks nice! I like the dashboard UI. Best of luck!

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        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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