How to Validate Your Startup Idea

2025-01-29

Every founder has their “lightbulb moment” that feels like a million-dollar idea. And Sara Blakely wasn’t wrong when she said everyone has at least one of those in their lifetime.

But an idea alone isn’t nearly enough. It needs refining to become something people want to buy, like raw gold. That’s why validating your startup idea is what separates potential from success.

In this post, I’ll teach you how to validate yours!

Why Validating Your Idea Matters

Validation helps you answer the big questions: Is there a real problem to solve? Are people willing to pay for my solution? Does the market need my product right now?

By validating these, you’ll save time, money, and a whole lot of heartbreak.

And speaking of heartbreak…

Startup graveyards are littered with great ideas that never found their market, an eerie reminder of how critical validation is. 34% of startups fail due to a lack of product-market fit.

Founders often scramble to try quick fixes (like limited-time offers or urgency tactics) hoping to move the needle. But foundational problems can’t be patched up. If the base isn’t solid, nothing you layer on top will stick.

Validation is how you reduce such risks and give your idea the best chance to succeed, no matter if you’re a first-time founder or a seasoned entrepreneur.

Steps to Validating Your Startup Idea

Define Your Goals and Hypotheses

In this post, I’ll play the role of a startup founder testing the idea of a pet wellness app – a solution for pet owners struggling to keep track of health records, vet visits, and wellness needs all in one place. 🐶🐱🏥

Before I jump into research, I should take a moment to clarify what I’m trying to achieve. Am I…

Gauging demand for the app?
Understanding what specific features pet owners value most?
Validating whether convenience and personalization are enough to make pet owners adopt the app.

Then, I’ll write down my assumptions and turn them into hypotheses. For example:

I believe the ability to track vet appointments and health records in one convenient place will be valued by busy pet owners.
I believe pet owners are frustrated with scattered information and are willing to pay for a simple, all-in-one solution.
I believe older pet owners may prefer offline solutions, while younger ones will engage more with an app.

These hypotheses will guide the rest of my validation process, helping me identify deciding factors and understand which audience segments are most likely to stick around.

Research Your Market

Understanding my market is essential because it shapes every decision I make, including what to build, how to position it, and who I’m building it for. For a pet wellness app, my primary goals are to understand

1) Existing pet wellness apps that match my audience and

2) How their target market currently responds to them.

“Prototype” Your Audience

Since the app doesn’t have any actual users yet, I’ll be finding the closest thing to a real audience without the guesswork. For this task, there’s no better companion than GummySearch. The platform scours Reddit for the most relevant insights about my specific target audience, where people openly share detailed thoughts on niche topics.

I just have to create a free GummySearch account. It takes 2 minutes. I’ll click the “Add a New Audience” button in the dashboard and include as many relevant subreddits as I wish.

In my case, I’ll add multiple subreddits that involve pets – because my audience will certainly be talking about solutions there, including pet-related apps.

The more subreddits I add, the more insights I’ll find. I didn’t even have to add the subs myself, as GummySearch has a full collection of Curated Audiences – Pet Lovers included!

That’s 31 subreddits. Over 20 million users. That’s a whole lot of user research gold!

Next, Discover What People Are Saying About Solutions Like Yours.

Nope, that doesn’t mean you’ll have to go over a never-ending amount of Reddit posts. It does mean you’ll ask GummySearch’s AI a pointed question, and it’ll bring you only the most relevant submissions based on your request.

I’ll go to my Audience’s (Pet Lovers) dashboard. Then, I’ll simply click the “Ask ✨” tab and ask a specific question, such as…

“Have people talked about pet apps to track vet appointments and similar solutions?”

(Mind you, this single search saved me 24 minutes of research!)

After waiting for all of 7 seconds, GummySearch brought me:

An accurate summary of discussions involving my query.
Sources to all of their claims
Relevant posts in case I want to dig deeper.

Based on the above results, I was able to find the following competitors:

VitusVet
AirVet
Puppr
CatsMe.app

That’s awesome. But what if I want to compare more competitors?

The great thing about GummySearch is that there’s always more than one way to look for (and find!) spot-on, updated information.

If I were looking for even more competitors, I could go to AI-Based Themes and click on “Self-Promotion”, where people share their products and services.

Once I click it, the platform will fetch an accurate AI-generated summary, followed by the most relevant conversation topics. The topics “Made” or “Created” will almost always be #1, as they refer to the solutions people are making/creating. That’s where I want to go.

Because that’s where I’ll find gems (and competitors) like this one…

…with real, varied feedback like this, which I can jot down for my validation purposes.

Use Your Competition as a Validation Parameter

The sole fact that similar solutions exist already indicates good product market fit. But I need to dig deeper with a few important questions:

How big is the target market?
Are competitors thriving or struggling?
Are they growing, raising funds, or expanding?

I can look at concrete indicators like LinkedIn pages to see if they’re hiring, expanding, or announcing funding rounds. If they are, it’s a strong signal of demand. I can also check their customer reviews and feedback to spot common complaints or gaps in their offers. These can become opportunities for my app. Platforms like G2 or Trustpilot are great places to gather this type of insight.

Ask Your Target Audience About Everything You Need to Know

There’s no substitute for direct conversations. This is where you’ll validate your hypotheses by hearing straight from the people you’re trying to help.

“But how do I talk to people if I don’t have any users yet?”

You guessed it: Reddit!

Reddit is a great place because it’s brimming with kindhearted people who genuinely want to help, despite the trolls. But remember: it’s a community-based app. And its community-driven nature doesn’t often sit well with market research. Unless I can do two things well:

1) Approach potential users with a genuine question or advice request.

And…

2) Clearly state I’m posting for research purposes.

Do you want to see a masterclass on this? Check out the following post-GummySearch fetched:

This post is honest and to the point. It doesn’t hide the fact that it aims to perfect a pet app. Most importantly, it starts with a discussion and gently segues into a solution.

The only thing I’d change is: that instead of asking people to DM me for a survey link, I’d drop the link in the comments. After all, Reddit comments are often less moderated than posts, and I don’t want to make my survey feel like a chore!

Having a survey handy is great, here’s a peek at how much insight you can gain from the right Reddit sources alone. Take a look at the following exchange in the comments:

This is proof that a piece of feedback, positive or negative, helps me better understand my audience. Depending on the commenter’s age, it circles right back to my hypothesis: “I believe older pet owners may prefer offline solutions, while younger ones will engage more with an app.”

Even if someone isn’t a potential user of my app, their reasons can reveal gaps in my approach, help refine my messaging, or validate my assumptions about the market.

Once I’ve gathered enough insights like these, the next step is turning that understanding into action by building a minimum viable offer (MVO).

Build a Minimum Viable Offer (MVO)

Before going all-in on my product, I should create a lightweight version to test the waters with the lowest possible risk. This could be:

A simple landing page with a call-to-action that explains my solution.
A prototype or mockup.
An explainer video showcasing my product’s value and offers.

Tools like Unbounce make it easy to set up a landing page, while Figma can help with visual prototypes. I’ll go with creating a prototype and then showing it to my audience, as there are different ways to validate an app.

Next, I’ll share the MVO with the right audience and gauge their reactions.

Test and Gather Feedback

With my MVO and audience insights in hand, I’ll run experiments to further validate my hypotheses. Again, there are several ways to go about this. I could…

Use tools like GummySearch and ideacheck.io to validate your idea fast. It collects feedback straight from your target group in just a few hours.
Try Lyssna or UserTesting.com to see how real people interact with your app’s design and flow. It’s a great way to catch potential issues before launch.
Directly ask for feedback in the Reddit communities I’ve been engaging with.
Run targeted Facebook or Google ads to direct traffic to a landing page and gauge interest.
Ask questions or post polls in online spaces where your target audience hangs out, like Reddit or niche Facebook groups.
Offer a free trial or a discounted pre-order and see if people are ready to back my idea with their wallets. Nothing says validation like a paying customer!

Analyze the Results

Next, I should analyze the results by asking myself (and documenting):

What feedback patterns emerged?
Did customers show interest or willingness to pay?
Were there unexpected objections or concerns?

I’ll use what I’ve learned above to answer what’s possibly the most important question for this exercise…

“Should I Move Forward, Keep Iterating, or Pivot Completely?”

The answer will depend on the consensus.

If validation is positive, I can move forward with confidence, knowing there’s a real demand for my solution.
If validation is mixed or negative, I should identify opportunities to pivot. Could I solve a different problem or target a more specific audience?

For example, let’s say users felt overwhelmed by the app’s many features for tracking health records, vet appointments, and wellness tips. Instead of scrapping the idea, I could pivot to focus on just one core problem, like an app that simplifies tracking vet appointments with automated reminders.

Release It Into the Wild Now

Don’t jump straight into the building. Talk to the right audience, listen carefully to their feedback (even when it stings), and refine your approach based on what you learn. Validate, validate, validate. That’s your new mantra.

Discover your audience

GummySearch is an audience research toolkit for 130,000 unique communities on Reddit.

If you are looking for startup problems to solve, want to validate your idea or find your customers online, GummySearch is for you.

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