One Question Friday: What Does It Mean To "Test Your Business Ideas"?

Validating an idea is really, really hard. I actually don't think you're ever going to get this clear signal ... It's just like a spectrum; you're just increasing your confidence level that there's a real there there, but you're never at 100% until many, many months in—too far in.

Work on something where you know you're the customer. Because if you're the customer for it, I guarantee you, on internet scale, that there are at least another hundred-thousand people that are just like you that have the same problem as you that feel the same way you do.

Talk to customers, and the rule is don't make the mistake everybody does—don't pitch your product, and just wait for them to politely be like, 'Yeah, sounds really interesting. Let me know.' Because that's a false positive. You're only allowed to talk to them about their problem.