Validate first is obvious advice. It was still the hardest for me to follow
I landed in the indie hacker world in 2023. Well, I'd had some side projects before that, but more as a lone wolf, completely unaware that a whole community of SaaS builders existed.
I've learned a lot along the way, but there's one piece of advice I heard over and over, and it always sounded kind of obvious to me: "validate your idea first." Obvious as it is, it turned out to be the hardest one to follow.
One great thing about launching in the digital world (SaaS, PaaS and so on) is that the capital investment is usually very low, especially compared to the physical world. That definitely makes it much easier to start new ventures. But the time and effort you pour into a project are not disposable, and validation can save you months of both (and time is money, baby).
So how do you actually validate an idea? There are basically three groups people turn to: family & friends, real potential customers, and experts.
Family & friends are the easiest to reach, and there's no reason to skip them. Just keep in mind that you probably understand the problem better than they do, so weigh their opinions carefully.
Potential customers are non-negotiable. If they invalidate your idea, all the rest of your effort is useless.
Experts are essential when you're a newcomer to a niche, a common situation where there are dozens of things you don't even know you don't know.
The internet is a magical thing built to connect us with the rest of the world, so all three groups can theoretically be reached there. And this is where my two pieces of advice come in:
1. Cold DMs work better than you think
I don't know exactly why, but I felt very reluctant to send DMs to people I didn't know. The truth is: most people are kind and supportive, especially when it comes to sharing knowledge about a topic they're experts in. After all, it feels rewarding to be recognized as an authority in a field and to help someone trying to innovate in it. From a personal perspective, I can say that I've sent dozens of messages to large accounts (both on X and LinkedIn) and received responses in about 20% of cases, which isn't bad considering you already have a "no."
2. You can get strangers to review your idea for free
Experts and potential users are among those strangers. The options I know of:
- Communities (subreddits, WhatsApp groups, forums). Joining one immerses you in the topic, which boosts both your learning and your validation process.
- Discussion sites like Hacker News. Great places to post your project and get feedback, but it's hard to grab attention. There's a high chance of shouting into the void.
- Launch platforms like Product Hunt. I love the theory behind them, but the execution is terrible: they receive so many products that only a few get featured, and the vast majority remain completely unseen.
That last problem frustrated me enough that I built my own alternative: ValidateHunt, a cross-validation platform where every founder has to review 3 products before submitting their own. It guarantees that every product gets visited and reviewed by at least a few people who might provide genuinely useful feedback. (And yes, posting this article is me validating the validation platform. Very meta.)
So the next time someone tells you to "validate first," don't dismiss it as obvious. When we get passionate about solving a problem, we want to jump straight into execution, and as software engineers, that bias is especially hard to resist. The most obvious advice is often the hardest to follow.
