22 Vital Startup Tips From Y Combinator | Houck's Newsletter

Have we identified a problem a customer wants solved? Does our product solve these customer needs? If so, do we have a viable and profitable business model? Have we learned enough to go out and sell?

An easy exercise for this is to rate all ideas on a scale of 1–5 in three categories: How severe is the problem; How big is the market; The level of confidence — based on gut feeling — you believe you will be able to build something that is innovative and that can grow fast.

What are the underlying assumptions of this idea and have we understood the underlying customer problem?171 Are you currently in the right position to validate these assumptions and what would it roughly take to validate them? (Massive experimentation or just a little bit more desk research?) How dangerous are the underlying assumptions? (Would it

A startup’s earliest strategic plans are likely to be hunch- or intuition-guided, and that is a good thing. To translate those instincts into data, entrepreneurs must, in Steve Blank’s famous phrase, “get out of the building” and start learning.

Testing and reducing risk To test a big business idea you break it down into smaller chunks of testable hypotheses. These hypotheses cover three types of risk. First, that customers aren’t interested in your idea (desirability). Second, that you can’t build and deliver your idea (feasibility). Third, that you can’t earn enough money from your idea