Lean Startup Idea Validation for Product Managers

Everyone chases a “gap in the market”. The better question: “Is there a market in that gap”? After scaling several ventures I can tell you: white space doesn't equal demand. • Short vid platform Quibi raised $1.75B → gone in 6 months • Juicero → “solved” a $700 smoothie problem no one had • Google Glass dazzled with tech → fizzled with users At Tandem, we did one thing before writing a line of code: Immersed ourselves in the lives of the people we wanted to serve. • I interviewed 400+ pet parents → on sidewalks, at parks, in vet lobbies • Spent months as a clinic admin → handling calls, emails, medical records • Saw real workflows, frustrations, and dropped balls up close • I built an online forum where we could listen at scale We weren’t looking for nice-to-haves. We were listening for pain. And we heard it. Pet parents loved their vets. But hated acting as project managers for their pet’s health. Scheduling. Records. Meds. Follow-ups. They were drowning in fragmentation. That’s when we knew there wasn’t just a gap. There was demand. There was pain. The validation framework we used: 1) Talk to 100+ ideal customers ↳ Listen with empathy. Observe closely. Identify patterns. 2) Quantify the pain ↳ How much time, money, stress is it costing them? 3) Test willingness to pay ↳ Interest is easy. Dollars are proof. 4) Launch something minimal ↳ We started with a simple mobile clinic and routine services 5) Let real customers reshape the model ↳ Every iteration was shaped by direct conversations, not assumptions Ideas get applause. Validated pain gets adoption. A gap in the market is just theory, until enough people pay to climb out of it. That’s how you know there’s a real market in the gap. And that’s where the true work begins.

Many startups fail because they run out of hypotheses—long before they run out of money. Every stage of a startup’s growth is an experiment. Each with a few critical assumptions that must be tested and proven true or false before moving forward. Skip the validation, and you risk building something no one wants, selling in a way that doesn’t scale, or running headfirst into a broken business model. The best founders don’t just build—they test. Here’s how it plays out: Phase 1: Problem Validation Hypothesis: "This [insert your problem] is painful enough that people will pay for a solution." Run interviews, test pricing before you build, pre-sell if you can. If you can’t find at least 10 people desperate for a solution, your idea is dead on arrival. Phase 2: Product Validation Hypothesis: "Our solution actually solves the problem." Build a scrappy MVP, launch fast, collect usage data. Customers should be pulling the product from you. If they aren’t, something’s off. Phase 3: Distribution Validation Hypothesis: "We can repeatedly acquire customers at a sustainable cost." Test sales, outbound, PLG, paid channels—whatever fits your model. If CAC is unsustainable or customers aren’t sticking, you don’t have a business yet. Phase 4: Scale Validation Hypothesis: "We can scale without breaking the business." Does our pricing support profitability? Do our operations and processes hold up with growth? Can we still hire great people at scale? If any of these assumptions prove wrong at any stage, it’s time to pause, reassess, and adjust—don’t blindly push forward. Before you charge ahead, ask yourself: 1️⃣ What are the one to three key hypotheses we need to validate at our current stage? 2️⃣ What’s the smallest test we can run to prove or disprove them? 3️⃣ Are we actually ready to move to the next stage, or are we skipping steps? Building a startup isn’t about moving fast for the sake of moving fast. It’s about reducing risk as efficiently as possible. The best founders and leaders don’t guess. They test. They remember to be the scientist 🧪, not the judge ⚖️. Curious—what stage are you in, and what’s the biggest hypothesis you’re testing right now?

I’ve seen countless founders waste $75k-150k on an MVP, by making the same mistake. I’ve built and scaled products for the last 2 decades, I’ve noticed a trend: Most product startup owners get excited and rush into launching MVP before laying the groundwork. This leads to unnecessary cash burn and failed products. But if founders hold off until they get the basics right, they can save money and build sustainable products. Here’s how: ▶ 1. Get inside your customers' heads - Dive deep into understanding your target audience. - Conduct thorough market research and user interviews. - Validate your problem statement to avoid building on guesswork. ▶ 2. Craft a crystal clear value proposition - Define the core value your product brings to the table. - Identify how it solves specific pain points better than anyone else. - Figure out why and how your MVP will resonate with users from the get-go. ▶ 3. Measure what matters - Pinpoint key success metrics for your MVP. - Know what to track - user engagement, feature usage, or conversion rates. - Gather meaningful data from the start to set the stage for future improvements. ▶ 4. Decide fast, act faster - Don't procrastinate if you are unsure about what to build. - Use the validation phase to make smart, informed decisions. - Be clear - if your solution doesn’t look promising, pivot without hesitation. By following these steps, you can ensure that you build a satisfactory MVP that sets the right path for your product. Have you ever built an MVP that failed? Do share your insights. #mvp #productbuilding #entrepreneurship

I spent 9 months and $50K on my first start-up. Got exactly 1 sale and made $2.92 Here's why I'm grateful it failed. I thought I was the next big thing. I had the idea to create a nootropic bar (think protein bars but for the brain for office workers). Building in stealth mode. Hiring food scientists. Working in fancy food co-working spaces. Pitching at startup competitions. Getting into accelerators. I did everything except the one thing that mattered: trying to make a single sale. Before perfecting my genius idea, I should have gotten market feedback ASAP. Because once I tried to launch, nobody cared. Here's what separates wannabe entrepreneurs from real founders: 1️⃣ Validation Strategy Wannabes: Build based on their own assumptions Real founders: Test with real money and real customers first 2️⃣ Development Approach Wannabes: Work in isolation, thinking stealth mode = advantage Real founders: Make customers co-creators from day one 3️⃣ Speed vs Perfection Wannabes: Spend months on features nobody asked for Real founders: Ship fast, iterate based on feedback 4️⃣ Loving products more than problems Wannabes: Fall in love with their solution, find customers later Real founders: Fall in love with problems customers already have I thought my idea was revolutionary. The market thought it was irrelevant. That $50K failure became the best business education I ever bought. Today, ColdIQ makes $6M ARR because we validate every idea by collecting cash from customers before even thinking of building a deck or a landing page. We confront the market immediately, even when we're nowhere close to ready. The biggest mistake in entrepreneurship? Thinking you should die on a hill for an idea nobody wants. The transformation from wannabe to founder is simple: Build for the market, not your ego. What's a costly assumption you had to unlearn?

How Can You Sell What Doesn’t Exist Yet? If startups should sell first, build best-in-class, then sell like crazy, how do you pitch a product that’s still just a dream in your eye? The trick is finding the fastest, cheapest way to prove two things: 1. The pain you’re solving is real. 2. Your solution actually scratches that itch. You don’t need a polished product. You need a scrappy, low-fidelity idea that validates demand. Here are some real-life proof it works: - Rent the Runway: Before they had an app or a slick platform, the founders ran a barebones test: a call center taking orders for designer dress rentals. Women called, booked, and paid. That was it—no tech, just proof. Only after confirming women craved the service did they build the infrastructure. Today, it’s a $1B+ business.  - Airbnb: The origin story is legendary for a reason. The founders threw up a basic website offering air mattresses in their San Francisco apartment during a sold-out conference. Strangers booked. Cash changed hands. Demand was real. That validation sparked a global marketplace now worth over $100B.  - Dropbox: No product, no problem. They posted a three-minute demo video showing what their file-syncing tool *could* do. Result? 75,000 signups overnight—before a single line of code was written. Validation unlocked $1.7B in funding and a thriving SaaS empire. When I built Vezeeta, what’s now the Middle East’s biggest consumer health platform—serving 20 million patients across five countries, we started by scheduling doctors’ appointments by hand: calling clinics, slotting patients, texting confirmations. Clunky? Yes. Effective? Absolutely. At InVitro Capital, we call this Hypothesis-Driven Validation: test your hunch against reality before you commit. It starts by a hypothesis that must be validated through real sales. Building without selling first is like pouring concrete without checking the ground—it might hold, but why risk the collapse? Every dollar and hour spent pre-validation is a gamble; post-validation, it’s an investment. We would love to hear from you, if this sounds like an exciting way to build. We are partnering with entrepreneurs, tech leaders and industry experts to be part of this movement. We are now building our second cohort. Exciting news about the first one to come soon. Cofound with us: https://lnkd.in/d5WjMSRn Partner with us: https://lnkd.in/dV5xgFmk