Newsletter

⚒ 5 Tips to Test Startup Ideas

Joel Hansen

Jun 18, 2021 • 7 min read

Happy Friday Builders 👋🏼

Summer's in the air and ice-coffee's are in our hands. It used to be vanilla cokes before Ronaldo chopped $4B of their stock, but we're still happy campers since y'all been dishing some killer startup ideas. We're keeping today's newsletter light to let you get to the cabin on time. Today's for the long time lurkers that wanna test their startup ideas but don't know how to start. Let's dive in 🗞

🏠 New Kids on the block: Help us welcome: Matt Mickiewicz (Chief Revenue Officer, Unstoppable Domains. Previously founded 99designs, Flippa, Hired), Chris Powers (Founder & Exec Chairman FortCapital, GP at FortVentures.com) and Ian Patterson, the CEO at Plurilock (TSXV: PLUR).

*Double click* on Matt Mickiewicz:

He's got quite the wikipedia bio and a mile long list of roles from Angellist. Looking forward to seeing what startup ideas you toss up! 🤓

The Startup Equation

Most of you probably think that coming up with startup ideas isn't the hard part — and we'd have to agree. What stumps most people is the execution piece. The qualification process of testing ideas can be challenging, but it's also where we think most of the fun begins. Gaurav breaks down the math here: ⚖

To expand on this further, here's the trends we've found:

🌏 Great startup ideas can come from everywhere and anyone

🛠 Great startup ideas don't always equal great operators

🏦 Great startups ideas don't always find quality funding

As a result, we're building Kern.al 🌱

With these 3 learnings in mind — and to steal a line from Shopfiy's President:

We're arming the rebels to help us.

To bring each of you up to speed, we wanted to share 5 tactics founders are using to test their ideas (before wasting 10 years building something no one needs 😅).

⚒ 5 Ways to Test Startup Ideas

💬 1. Ask your Network: Building strong relationships is crucial if you wanna cut through the noise. After trust is built, you're given the sacred space to ask questions, promote causes and share ideas you care about with that person. This is where your opportunity to run a startup idea by them could be hiding. 🔎

At the bottom of each Kernal idea, you're given a URL to copy/paste wherever you see fit. If you've got a couple phrases and a photo teed up, why not text it to a friend or investor to hear their thoughts? If you're on a hot streak in your #marketing slack channel, why not run an idea by the group? Heck, the people that see it might even wanna help you build it. 🤷🏽‍♀️

✉️ Email a killer startup idea

💰 Let your Community Vote: Tik Tok, Twitter, IG, or LinkedIn. The tactic are all the same. After you have an audience drummed up, why not pin it to your fans to see what they think. This is where the classic "request for startup" lingo earns its spotlight. 🔦

Entrepreneurs default to asking others to roast their startup ideas with the plan that if it makes it through heat, you might be left with a golden idea and a couple curious lurkers to help you build it.

Why not get off the sidelines and post up an idea you think has some legs? You never know where it can take you...

✉️ Share a startup idea

🔎 When in Doubt, Tweet it Out: KP is a great example of someone that builds in public and isn't scared to turn to his Twitter fam when he has an itch for an idea. His latest idea is ripe for picking. His playbook?

1) Find an idea or problem that needs fixing

2) Tweet it out to hear who'd wanna build it

🎯 Bonus: turn your tweet into a Kernal idea to qualify if builders or investors would jump in. And Voilà: ✨

Even if it doesn't IPO for $2B the next week, it's a great way to score out to see if it's worth your time. If it doesn't pass the threshold, put it on the back burner list to build it out via no-code on a rainy day. 😏

✉️ See KP's startup idea or share my own

☎️ Make a Phone Call: In Clement's article, he shares how fast Richard Branson acted when he came up with his idea for Virgin Atlantic. 🛫

When he got the itch, his next step (that same day) was to call up airlines and enquire about plane rentals. As you now know, the plan turned out beautifully and the English business magnate now operates 37 aircrafts. Not a bad way to test an idea before putting it back in the notebook. 📚

📱Call someone about your startup idea

✏️ Journal it out:

James Altucher is well known for his kick to founders for making idea sharing a daily habit. The exact words from his blog:

Ideas are the currency of life. Not money. Money gets depleted until you go broke. But good ideas buy you good experiences, buy you better ideas, buy you better experiences, buy you more time, save your life. Financial wealth is a side effect of the “runner’s high” of your idea muscle.

His advice: Get a writer's pad and start generating 10 ideas a day. 📖

You'll be happier, full of curiosity and damn more likely to jump on the right startup idea when it surfaces.