Will Schroter:

Long before you set up shop and hang your shingle, your job as a Founder is to spend as many cycles as you can validating whether your business idea even merits a logo.

Validating your business idea isn’t a dark art. It’s literally asking people whether they would use or buy what you’d make.

The challenge is: How exactly do you go about doing that?  Since most Founders are only validating a business idea for their first time, they don’t have a great sense for how to validate a business idea well or how to interpret what they are learning.

The result is often a heavily skewed view of what the market thinks—or worse—no view at all and a long run into the abyss.

As it happens, there are really only a few parameters to consider before you put a lot of effort into pursuing your idea.  It’s all about that early validation. The good news it doesn’t take too long and it’s generally free.

Another great post from Will and the gang at Startups.co, I recommend checking out their blog if you haven’t already.

Startups.co also runs a slack channel that has a founder giving a live chat every day about work, life, and everything in between.