We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. It starts with eChai Startup Demo Day on 26 September, all in person. 13 cities confirmed, 1006 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city
Find your idea & build the brand

Validating demand before inventory

Prove people will pay before you place a PO.

Level All Beginner Intermediate
Market All India Global
Who's asking Everyone Aspiring Brand Builder Maker / Artisan Just-Launched Founder Scaling Brand Bootstrapped Side-Hustler Product Person

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Should I run a crowdfunding or pre-order campaign to validate demand, and does that even work for Indian founders? Kickstarter itself is largely closed to Indian founders raising in INR, so most Indian D2C brands use local platforms like Fueladream or Catapooolt... Intermediate 3 resources → Can I dropship or run ads on a 'coming soon' page to test a product before I commit to a real manufacturing PO? Yes - this is the cheapest legitimate way to test demand: source a small sample or even just supplier images, run 5-10 ad creative variants on Meta... Intermediate 3 resources →

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