I’m working on a new service aimed at helping entrepreneurs validate their business ideas more effectively. The process involves in-depth customer interviews, thorough market analysis, and comprehensive industry data gathering.
I’d love to hear your thoughts:
- Would you use a service like this to validate your business idea?
- If yes, would you be willing to pay for it?
- How much would you consider it worth if the insights provided were super insightful and valuable?
I am paid by economic development organizations to do this work, and there is a problem with perception when a person hires a contractor or consultant to do market validation work.
The entrepreneur will think that they are paying you to “prove their idea works.” They are looking for you to “validate” and if you don’t, then they will doubt your methods and your effort.
Now, I push all the work on the teams and provide educational materials and tools for them to do “customer discovery.”
If there is no grant to fund this work or if there is no promise of angel investment at the end, 50% of teams won’t do more than 1 interview. 90% won’t do more than 15. My best teams will do 30+, and if there is a financial incentive like the NSF I-Corps program, some will do 100+
If I were you, I’d pivot either into educational tools or providing a tool that makes it easier to find leads, setup interviews, ask good questions, and capture notes (like Innovation Within).
Alternatively, work with the funders to create a mechanism where you can verify the interviews have been completed and that they are accurate.
This is spot on. My experience as well. Would love to connect and trade insights with you sometime. Sending you a chat request.