How many pre-orders or sign-ups actually prove people will pay, versus just being polite interest?
Clicks and "interested" DMs are free to give and mean almost nothing - the real signal is money or a firm written commitment changing hands before you place a PO. As a rough bar, a landing-page-to-pre-order conversion above 3% (against paid traffic, not just friends-and-family) is a decent green light; under that, you're probably validating enthusiasm, not demand. Don't confuse a full Instagram DM inbox with a manufacturing-ready signal - ask for a ₹500-1,000 refundable deposit and watch how many people actually pay it.
Go deeper
4 resources, 1 India-specific, 4 link-checked.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedFreeBeginner
The most complete single starting point on demand validation - covers landing pages, interviews, pre-sales and decision thresholds in one place rather than making you stitch together five blog posts.
Written by a waitlist/landing-page tool vendor, so it's specific about what actually counts as a real signal (paid clicks converting) versus vanity metrics like page views or organic likes.
Written by a company whose whole product is pre-launch demand testing, so the checklist reflects what actually predicts a successful launch versus what founders assume matters.
Kickstarter is functionally closed to most Indian founders raising in INR, so this is a useful map of the local alternatives (Fueladream, Catapooolt and similar) that actually work for validating demand in India.
