An idea, a thoughtful one, paves way for a successful startup. More adeptly, an idea intended to seek a solution for a challenging problem often becomes the one that defines the journey of your startup. In 2022 alone, India witnessed over 70 thousand startups. However, you’d only be familiar with a few of them. What’s shocking is that despite ranking 3rd in the global startup ecosystem, 90% of Indian startups tend to fail in a span of 5 years. Something is amiss, surely. Perhaps, startup ideas needed to be taken a little more seriously. So, let’s explore how a startup idea can be validated.
1. Prioritize foundational research
Even before spending those bucks, and your precious time, how about you give a thought to foundational research? Foundational research is meant to equip you with enough knowledge before you settle down with your startup idea. It focuses on asking questions like – what are the problems and how can these problems be addressed? Involving interactions with the targeted audience, it’s clear and concise. To begin with, you can compare where your startup idea stands and how you can improve it.
2. Map the targeted audience and network with empathy
Now that you’re familiar with foundational research, your next priority has to be understanding what you’re trying to do with your idea and for whom. Choosing and exploring your audience will limit your distractions and confusion. Besides, this will not only further strengthen your foundational research but also help you sharpen your ideas. When your idea appeals to your audience, you’ll have their back. And, who doesn’t like something that resolves their concerns or brings improvisation? Network over problem-solving and the connection would be robust.
3. Dig deeper and do vast market research
Your ideas are unique, and that’s unquestionable. However, your ideas may be out there in the world catching dust. According to the latest research, almost 42% of startups fail because of misreading the market. Some other research also indicates that 19% of startups fail because of not being able to catch up with the competition. So, finding out what’s the market status of your idea, and what has been in the market already, and doing sufficient secondary research will lead you a long way. Not only that, but you’ll also understand the loopholes, failures, and lessons that are a consequence of various startups.
You can learn more on how to manage customer support for your startup with this article better https://clearfeed.ai/blogs/improve-customer-support-on-slack
4. Accept and implement feedback honestly
Feedback directly portrays you’ve gained some audience and relevance. There are various ways to reach out to your audience. Surveys will come in handy for quantitative research while interviews will facilitate qualitative research. ‘How many’ as well as ‘Why’ both are equally important as you forge ahead with your startup idea.
Tools such as ClearFeed help startups manage their customer support better and help them get appropriate feedback to validate, and improve products. You can check out ClearFeed at https://clearfeed.ai.
5. Build prototypes, test, and experiment
After building a prototype, emphasize asking the right questions that are detail-oriented. Connect to the audience with empathy, build relationships, and ask them what they felt about it. Switch to being more professional and less sensitive about the matter. Their experiences will be building blocks for crafting a crisp USP as well, who knows?
As you intend to validate your startup idea, experiment, design, re-design, and keep evolving. A little idea popped into your mind can be a master problem solver.
