Startup research: signal before spend

Validation is not asking people if they like an idea. It is finding evidence that someone already pays, in money or effort, to solve the problem badly.

The method used with founders: map where demand already leaks (support threads, spreadsheets, manual workarounds), price the pain, then build the smallest thing that removes it.

Killing an idea early is the highest-return outcome of research. Most founders pay for confirmation; the useful work is disconfirmation.