Research17 min read
Why 90% of Startups Fail: Data-Backed Lessons for Founders
CB Insights analyzed 100+ startup post-mortems. Here are the real reasons startups fail—and how to avoid becoming another statistic.
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, 202517 min read
Why 90% of Startups Fail: Data-Backed Lessons for Founders
CB Insights analyzed 100+ startup post-mortems. Here are the real reasons startups fail—and how to avoid becoming another statistic.
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
Stewart Butterfield accidentally built Slack while his gaming company failed. Patrick Collison built Stripe because he was a developer who hated payment APIs. 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, 20259 min read
The Startup Validation Checklist: 15 Questions Before You Build Anything
Juicero raised $120M and failed because nobody asked basic questions. This checklist would have killed bad ideas and saved good ones. Use it before you build.
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, 20257 min read
How to Validate a Business Idea Before You Build (And Avoid Wasting Months)
Drew Houston got 75,000 signups for Dropbox before writing a line of code. Here's the validation playbook smart founders use to test ideas fast.
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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