Research10 min read
Why 90% of Startups Fail: What the Data Actually Shows (Not What You've Read Before)
You've heard about Quibi and Juicero. Here are the startup failures nobody talks about—and the patterns that actually kill companies.
Startup Insights
& Validation Guides
Expert strategies for validating business ideas, understanding markets, and building successful startups.
Featured Articles
Tutorial15 min read
How to Do Market Research for Your Startup (2025 Guide)
Airbnb validated their market with air mattresses. Here's the complete playbook for market research that actually predicts startup success.
All Articles
ResearchJan 30, 202510 min read
Why 90% of Startups Fail: What the Data Actually Shows (Not What You've Read Before)
You've heard about Quibi and Juicero. Here are the startup failures nobody talks about—and the patterns that actually kill companies.
StrategyJan 29, 202516 min read
From Side Project to Startup: 15 Business Ideas You Can Start Tonight
Mailchimp, GitHub, and Craigslist all started as side projects. Here are 15 validated ideas you can test while keeping your day job.
TutorialJan 28, 202515 min read
How to Do Market Research for Your Startup (2025 Guide)
Airbnb validated their market with air mattresses. Here's the complete playbook for market research that actually predicts startup success.
TutorialJan 27, 202515 min read
10 Free Tools to Validate Your Business Idea (2025)
Skip the expensive market research. These 10 free tools help you validate demand, analyze competition, and test your startup idea before building.
TutorialJan 26, 202513 min read
Reddit Research for Startups: The Complete Guide to Finding Customer Insights
How to use Reddit for market research, find pain points, and validate startup ideas. Includes subreddits by industry, search techniques, and ethics.
TutorialJan 24, 202511 min read
How to Calculate Total Addressable Market (TAM): A Founder's Guide
Learn to calculate TAM with top-down and bottom-up methods. Real SaaS examples, investor expectations, and common mistakes to avoid.
TutorialJan 23, 202512 min read
Competitor Analysis Template for Startups: A Step-by-Step Framework
Learn how to analyze competitors systematically with our free template. Covers direct vs indirect competitors, positioning, and finding competitive gaps.
StrategyJan 22, 202513 min read
How to Find Your First 10 Customers (Proven Strategies)
Practical tactics from founders who went from zero to their first paying customers. No theory, just what actually works.
StrategyJan 22, 20259 min read
Trend Surfing: How to Find Startup Ideas Before They're Obvious
Eric Yuan saw Zoom's opportunity in 2011—while working at Cisco. The trick isn't spotting trends. It's timing them. Here's how to find ideas at the right moment.
StrategyJan 21, 202514 min read
MVP vs Prototype: What You Actually Need to Build First
Confused about MVP vs prototype? Learn the key differences, when to build each, and avoid the costly mistake of building the wrong thing first.
StrategyJan 20, 202510 min read
Founder-Market Fit: Why Your Background Matters More Than Your Idea
A payments fraud specialist built Justt after seeing chargebacks destroy merchants. A decade-long stock trader built India's largest broker. Here's why who you are determines what you should build.
TutorialJan 19, 202510 min read
50 Customer Interview Questions Every Founder Should Ask
The Mom Test-approved questions that reveal what customers actually need. Copy these questions and use them in your next customer discovery interview.
ValidationJan 18, 20258 min read
The Startup Validation Checklist: 15 Questions Before You Build Anything
Fast raised $120M and made $600K in revenue. Zume raised $375M for robot pizza that couldn't survive a pothole. These 15 questions would have killed those ideas early.
StrategyJan 16, 20259 min read
B2B vs B2C Validation: Different Markets, Different Playbooks
Salesforce grew through enterprise sales. TikTok grew through viral loops. The validation approach that works for one will fail for the other. Here's how to validate each.
ValidationJan 15, 20259 min read
How to Validate a Business Idea Before You Build
Superhuman charged $30/month for email—and built an $825M company. Here's the validation playbook that separates ideas worth building from expensive mistakes.
StrategyJan 10, 20257 min read
Why ChatGPT Can't Validate Your Startup Idea (And What Actually Works)
A lawyer got sanctioned for citing fake cases ChatGPT invented. Now imagine basing your startup on that same technology. Here's why AI research tools fail—and what to use instead.
TutorialJan 5, 202510 min read
Pain Point Mining: How to Find Business Ideas in Customer Frustrations
Basecamp, Reddit, and Notion all started from founder frustrations. Here's how to systematically mine customer pain points to discover startup ideas worth building.
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