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How to Give your Startup Idea a Reality Check

Written by: Martin Zwilling

Article Overview: I’m sure you all realize that there could be quite a distance between a great idea and a great startup. But many people don’t have a clue on how to bridge the gap. So, trying carefully not to rain on his parade, I suggested to my friend that he consider the following steps as a reality check before spending his life savings (and mine) to roll out a solution:

How to Give your Startup Idea a Reality Check

I have a special friend (we all have one of these), who called me again the other day, all excited about his latest revelation. “What if you could go to a web site and find all the recipes you could make today, with just the ingredients you already have in your kitchen? I want to start a website to offer this service!”

I’m sure you all realize that there could be quite a distance between a great idea and a great startup. But many people don’t have a clue on how to bridge the gap. So, trying carefully not to rain on his parade, I suggested to my friend that he consider the following steps as a reality check before spending his life savings (and mine) to roll out a solution:

1. Use Google or one of the many other search engines to search for existing solutions to this problem. A search argument like “recipes from the ingredients you have on hand” might be the place to start. If you find ten competitors who already have this offering, it’s probably not worth going any further.

2. Maybe the solution hasn’t yet been commercialized, but a patent has been submitted by someone else, putting your idea in jeopardy. Another series of searches on www.google.com/patents and the US Patent Office site www.uspto.gov and www.freepatentsonline.com is in order at this point. These days, even a Patent Attorney can’t find much more with a $10K Preliminary Patent Search.

3. Let’s say you find nothing of relevance in either of the preceding searches, so the next question is how big the market opportunity might be for this type of product. Your own conviction that if you love the product, everyone will love the product, doesn’t count. Investors will expect market analysis data from a “credible unbiased third party” – that means a nationally known market research firm like Gartner, Forrester, IDC, or Frost & Sullivan. Hopefully, you will find, with your favorite search engine, something like the “Cooking And Eating Market Assessment 2007” on the www.researchandmarkets.com site.

4. The next step is to talk to all the experts you can find in this domain (chefs, people with successful web sites for consumers, home cooking fanatics). All the web research in the world won’t highlight key requirements and problems like talking to real people who have been there and done that. Ask questions, like how much will it cost to build the solution, how much marketing is required, what are reasonable sales channels, etc.

5. The final step is to decide if you really have a passion for creating this solution and starting your own business. If the answer is no, or not right now, pass it to someone else, or put in on the shelf to wait for the right time. Startups are tough on even the most dedicated and passionate founders – less committed founders will likely fail, and definitely be unhappy. No idea is worth that.

I’m sure that many of you could add additional “idea due diligence” items, from bitter experience, that I’ve neglected to mention. If so, a comment with the info would be appreciated.

In case you are wondering what happened to this recipe idea, try the search I suggested and you will find a couple of pages of sites that already claim this capability. Needless to say, my friend decided to quit working on this one. But he will be back, he always is, and one of these days he may find an idea that can become a reality.

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Article Tags: commercialized, conviction, existing solutions, forrester, freepatentsonline, frost sullivan, gap, gartner, google, jeopardy, market assessment, market opportunity, other search engines, patent attorney, patent search, reality check, search argument, special friend, us patent office, uspto



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