ALWAYS START HERE
4 min read
You're gonna hate this and ignore it… but it'll cost you a ton of time & money if you do.
DO NOT SKIP VALIDATION.
DO NOT BUILD IT.
DO NOT SPEND MONEY.
Founders build because building feels like progress. It is not. It is insulation from reality.
We skip validation for several reasons…
"The market is already validated."
Market validation only means someone, somewhere, wants something like this. It does not validate your specific approach, your wedge, your distribution, or your ability to win. A validated market with no traction is often worse than an unvalidated one, because it removes excuses.
"I've already built most of it."
Building is not progress unless you have customers and they are asking for specific improvements. Shipping code only matters if it creates pull. If you built a lot and learned little, that is a negative signal, not an asset.
"I've been working on this for X months or years."
Time spent is not evidence. Your conviction doesn't matter. In startups, a long time without sharp signal is counter-evidence. The longer you have been at it without meaningful traction, the more likely something fundamental is wrong.
"BUT I didn't do wasted building, my work mattered because…"
If all that building was truly validating, you would not need to argue for it. The results would be arguing for you.
When you've spent thousands of dollars and/or months of time building, starting over feels incredibly painful and deflating… BUT the further you fall into this sunk cost hole, it gets harder and harder to climb out.
We don't care about past you. We care about future you and future you's success.
The best thing you can do in the early stage if you skipped customer validation is to pause all product work and focus on real validation.