Validate a business idea

This prompt asks the AI to act as a startup advisor and challenge your idea. You give the idea, target customers, market and budget, and it asks who has the problem most and how they solve it today.

text-validate-business-idea — chatgpt — 77 words

Act as an experienced startup advisor and pressure-test my business idea.

Idea: [IDEA]
Target customers: [CUSTOMERS]
City / market: [MARKET]
Starting budget: [BUDGET]

1. Who has this problem most, and how are they solving it today?
2. The main competitors and how I'm different.
3. Simple unit economics: price, cost, and margin per sale.
4. The 3 biggest risks, and how to test each one cheaply in 2 weeks.
5. An honest verdict: go, tweak, or drop.

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Ask it to “argue against my idea as hard as possible” for a tougher critique.

Get a better result

What you will get

A pressure test of your idea covering who has the problem, competitors, simple unit economics, the three biggest risks with cheap two-week tests, and an honest go, tweak or drop verdict.

Common mistake

The verdict feels too kind.

Fix: Use the tip and ask it to argue against the idea as hard as possible.

Also watch for

Unit economics are made up. Put real costs and prices in, and mark which numbers are estimates you still need to check.
You treat the verdict as final. It is a thinking aid. Test the risks with real customers before you decide.

Try a variation: ask for customer questions

Ask for ten questions to put to five potential customers, written so they cannot just say it sounds nice.

Still not right? Reply with this

I ran the two-week test on the biggest risk. Here are the results: [RESULTS]. Give me a revised verdict and the next risk to test.