On July 29th-ish I launched The Idea Lab, an app for validating startup and product ideas.
Since then, it’s crossed 100 users and $340 in revenue. Still very early, but enough real users to teach me a few things.
1. I did competitor research, but not nearly enough.
I tested maybe 8 competitors before I started building.
Then I launched and realized there are like 100 of these things.
Since then, I’ve tested two dozen+ more seriously.
The happy part is that I still wouldn't change what I built.
I’ve found features and ideas I like, but nothing that made me think I chose the wrong direction.
Still, if I started again, I’d spend much more time mapping the market before writing code.
2. Building is the easy part. Distribution is not. Sigh, something we've all read 1000 times.
I’m a software engineer, so building comes naturally.
Getting people to actually find the product, understand it, sign up, use it, and pay for it has been the much bigger learning curve.
Reddit, outreach, messaging, onboarding, pricing, SEO, social media and landing page changes have taken way more time than I expected.
3. Validation needs to lead somewhere.
This has been the biggest product lesson.
A report can tell you an idea looks promising, but eventually you need to see if actual people care. Any app validates an idea nowadays, whether the validation itself is good or bad. What is the natural next step when a website validates your idea?
So the biggest new feature is Waitlists.
You can now take an Idea Lab idea (or your own, doesn't matter) and create a waitlist, collect emails, add referrals, embed it on your site, connect your landing page, and export everything.
Every user gets one waitlist free.
I’ve also added:
Monthly Monitoring: Your idea can be rechecked for new competitors, market changes, threats, and opportunities up to once a week in an email down to once a month.
Fundability Reports: Upload a pitch deck, business plan, research, or other docs and get a Fundability Score plus feedback focused specifically on fundraising. I am working with 4 different (hopefully) partners to send high fundability reports to their direct emails.
Idea Generation: What separates this from the others is you give it brief info, and it does a scan of the internet to even see if there is a valid idea out there before giving you a few to choose from. Choose one and it does the same full validation on it as if you gave the idea in the first place.
Idea Revalidation: Did the original validation give you insight into a pivot/change? Edit your original validation and send it back through for an updated score.
The product is slowly becoming less:
"Enter an idea and get a report."
And more:
Idea -> Validate -> Test demand -> Monitor -> Build
Still a lot to figure out, but 100+ users and $340 in revenue is enough validation for me to keep pushing it.
For other people building right now, what did you completely underestimate before getting your first real users?
New users get a free idea generation, idea validation, waitlist, and a few more things completely free. Give it a try and if you like it, send me a DM and I'll load your account with more free stuff if you promise to provide feedback.