Video · ~50 min

How to Evaluate Startup Ideas

Kevin Hale, Y Combinator · YouTube Free Beginner

How to Evaluate Startup Ideas

Before you spend weeks validating, check whether the idea is even worth it. Kevin Hale's filter asks whether the problem is popular, growing, urgent, expensive, mandatory, and frequent. A fast way to drop weak ideas and focus on the ones worth testing.

  • Start from the problem, not the solution.
  • Good problems are frequent, urgent, and expensive.
  • Behaviour change needs motivation, ability, and a trigger.
Watch on YouTube ↗

It answers 44 questions

  1. What does 'validating an idea' actually mean?
  2. I want to start a startup but I don't have an idea. Where do I even begin?
  3. How big does my market need to be for this to be a real business?
  4. How do I know if my idea is any good?
  5. What are TAM, SAM, and SOM and how do I actually calculate them?
  6. How do I validate an idea without building anything?
  7. Why does 'why now?' matter so much for a startup idea?
  8. I'm passionate about an idea but have zero background in it. Should I still do it?
  9. How do I know if my idea is a real problem or just a 'nice to have'?
  10. I have too many ideas. How do I pick which one to actually work on?
  11. How do I size a market for India specifically when data is messy?
  12. Why does good design actually matter for an early-stage startup?

And 32 more across the hub.

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for... paulgraham.com Essay · ~20 min read How to Get Startup Ideas Paul Graham
  3. The essay that put 'product-market fit' into the startup vocabulary. Read it for the gut-level description of what PMF feels... pmarchive.com Essay · ~15 min read The Only Thing That Matters Marc Andreessen
  4. Turns the vague feeling of product-market fit into a number you can move. Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit Rahul Vohra
  5. Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky
  6. Long-form, candid interviews with Indian founders and investors on how they actually grew, distributed and built brand, one of... The Neon Show / Neon Fund Podcast · 200+ episodes The Neon Show (100x Entrepreneur Podcast) Siddhartha Ahluwalia
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