Judge your idea in 10 minutes

Most ideas don't die because they're bad. They die because the founder didn't ask the hard questions early.

Before you resign or register a company, sit down with a pen and paper and answer these honestly. Ten minutes is enough.

The questions

• Are you the right person? Do you know the field, or have you lived the problem yourself? A founder who knows the market from the inside starts a year ahead.
• Does the problem actually hurt? People pay to get rid of pain, not for something that would be "nice to have."
• What do they use today? If the current fix is Excel and WhatsApp messages, that's an opening. If they use nothing at all, maybe they don't care.
• How big is the market? You don't need a precise number. You need to know if customers come in hundreds, thousands, or millions.
• Why now? What changed in the market, the technology, or the regulations that makes this possible today and not five years ago?
• What's hard to copy? Data, relationships, local knowledge, or speed of execution.

Reading the result

No idea passes every question. But if you can't answer the problem question and the "why you" question, stop and go back to the market before you build.

And if every idea looks bad on paper, don't panic. Some of the most successful companies started that way. What matters is knowing where the weak spot is and testing it first.

Try it today: write your idea in one line, answer the six questions under it, and send it to one person who knows the space.

Idea from YC.