I own a product design company and people come to us all the day with ideas for products they want brought to market
Folks unsure of their product/idea tend to not have a great product or are just not good at starting a business. But the people that know a market exists for their idea and just need it implemented are more than likely to succeed.
I'm racking my brain to think of any successful entrepreneurs that had to get validation before they started. Jeff Bezos? No, he had an idea for an online bookstore, quit his job, moved to Seattle and started one. 37Signals? I bet Jason Fried asked for lots of validation. Steve Jobs? No, they built the Apple 1 and started selling it. Henry Ford famously said "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
Read the last sentence of my previous post again...you think of those people because they're the rare ones who can succeed based on their gut alone, allegedly doing no customer development or validation. I'm not even sure I buy that part...didn't Jobs and Woz spend tons of time hanging out with computer hobbyists in the early days? Seems like a good way to learn what your market wants. And Fried was scratching his own itch, which as I've already said is a separate thing.
I just don't get why you wouldn't try to find out if you'll be able to find customers before you spend all the time and money to build the thing.
Folks unsure of their product/idea tend to not have a great product or are just not good at starting a business. But the people that know a market exists for their idea and just need it implemented are more than likely to succeed.
I'm racking my brain to think of any successful entrepreneurs that had to get validation before they started. Jeff Bezos? No, he had an idea for an online bookstore, quit his job, moved to Seattle and started one. 37Signals? I bet Jason Fried asked for lots of validation. Steve Jobs? No, they built the Apple 1 and started selling it. Henry Ford famously said "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."