Validate demand (before building)

First principle

The deadliest assumption is "people want it." Test that assumption before you build. Pre-selling beats surveys — words are cheap, money is evidence. A landing page plus one real ask for money beats months of building in the dark.

Key steps

1. 1

   State the offer in one sentence

   State what you are selling in one sentence: for whom, what it solves, what result they get. If you cannot say it cleanly, stop here.

2. 2

   Make the smallest artifact

   Make the smallest thing to test it: a landing page, a DM, a one-pager. Enough to make the value clear — not a product.

3. 3

   Put it in front of real people

   Put it in front of 10 to 30 real target customers. Real ones — not friends being polite, not a generic blast.

4. 4

   Ask for a costly signal

   Ask for a costly commitment: a prepayment, a deposit, or a booked call. Only a "yes" that costs something counts.

5. 5

   Read the signal honestly

   Read the result honestly: count the people who paid, not the people who praised. "That's cool" is not demand; payment is.

Copy-ready prompts

What I want to pre-sell is [one-sentence offer], and the target customer is [specific customer]. I have not built anything yet.

Write copy for a pre-sell landing page with:
1. A one-line headline that says who it is for and what pain it solves.
2. Three value points, written in the customer's words.
3. One costly call to action (prepay / deposit / booked call), with two wordings.

Keep the tone plain, no hype, no exclamation marks.

I put the pre-sell in front of [number] real customers. The feedback was roughly:
[paste what you actually heard here]

Help me:
1. Sort the feedback into three buckets: costly "yes," verbal "yes," clear "no."
2. Judge whether this is a strong or weak signal, with reasons.
3. Tell me plainly: continue, change the offer, or kill it. Do not soften it for me.