- Who else is doing it
Competition
- Who else is trying to do it
Startups, side projects, open-source projects.
- Who tried and failed
These can be extremely hard to find. Look through investor portfolios, accelerators, online maker spaces, forums, GitHub.
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Write it down as a Press Release
Putting the idea into writing forces more thinking. A PR is an easily accessible form for that.
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Create an elevator pitch
Can you explain the problem and your solution in as few words as possible?
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Create a pitch deck
Explain the idea as if you were raising money to answer one important question: is there a viable business?
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Make a landing page with an email capture form
The landing page will become the public-facing part of the idea. You can refer to it as "more info" in emails and forum posts.
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Make a list of influencers, partners and prospects
Make it one list per section of Lean Canvas
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Earn good standing in target forums to ask questions without being shot down
Posting a link to your landing page in your very first post on Reddit is a sure way to be kicked out. This takes time.
- Confusing message
- Didn't ask the right question
- Spam filters
- Too busy
- Too many emails
- No interest in the subject
- Not a decision-maker of any kind
- Bad idea
- Conflict of interest
- Understands the problem, but cannot relate to it