How I Validate Startup Ideas Without Wasting Time
I’ve been tossing around a bunch of startup ideas lately, but I don’t want to sink weeks into coding something nobody wants. So I came up with a quick way to test them—here’s what I do:
- Start with a Simple Idea: I pick one idea, like a tool to help freelancers track time and invoices easier. Nothing fancy, just something I think people might need.
- Make a Waitlist Page: I throw together a basic waitlist on a free site like WaitFast.netlify.app Forms—takes 2 minutes. I add a quick description, a sign-up form, and maybe a logo.
- Share It Everywhere: I post the link on X, or wherever my target audience hangs out. I ask, “Would you use this? Why or why not?” and watch who signs up.
- Check the Response: If I get 10+ signups and some good feedback in a day or two, I know there’s interest. If it’s crickets, I move on to the next idea.
Next week I will try freelancer tool hope get more than 15 signups fast, so I’m sketching out a MVP I'd like to do this, not for making a startup but for developer tools, installable native tools, no subscriptions, no cloud service, open source. The problem is the first step: the "simple idea". Yes you maybe can ask ai for the ideas and then create the waitlist use fast waitlist generator (i use waitfast.netlify.app) and validate it's simple Looking at your previous post, this looks like a disguised ad for waitfast. It's fine to post your own stuff in HN if it's interesting and you don't repost too much, but trying to hide you are the author will make people angry and flag your posts and write angry emails to the moderators to complain.