An idea nobody wants.

Want to know the best way to waste time AND hurt your feelings in the process?

Build something nobody wants.

I see this all the time. A solopreneur gets excited about an idea, dives in, spends time and energy tweaking and polishing, and then launches to crickets.

The silence is heartbreaking. And it’s not just demoralizing. It’s expensive! Particularly when you're working on your own, and time is your most valuable resource.

The problem with typical validation advice

"Talk to 50 customers.”

"Launch an MVP, and iterate."

Typical idea-validation advice works best for startups with cash, teams, and time. And since you’re reading this newsletter, I’ll imagine you don’t have those luxuries at your disposal.

So it’s extremely important to know if your idea is worth building, before you invest any serious time and energy (and your feelings) into the project.

You need a simple, ruthless filter that kills bad ideas before you get going.

So here it is. A filter you can use to validate your ideas, starting now.

The four-question filter test

First thing’s first: I want you to use this before you build anything.

And if you can't answer "yes" to these four questions, kill your idea and move on. The key here is to be totally honest with yourself. If you’re not honest, this won’t work.

Q1: Are people already paying for something similar?

Look for money, not interest. Comments like "great idea!" don't count. Stripe receipts do.

• Browse Gumroad for similar digital products
• Look at successful paid Substack newsletters
• Find digital courses that are selling, or a profitable SaaS in your niche.

In the beginning, it probably pays not to innovate. Instead, piggyback on proven demand.

Q2: Do you have access to an audience who wants this?

The question shouldn’t be, "Could I maybe run ads to reach people?" That's speculation.

The question is, "Do I have 500 people I could pitch this to tomorrow?"

Consider your email list, social media followers, community members, network, and so on. Do you have a channel you actually control and can get results from? If you have to build an audience first, you're adding months (or more likely, years) to your timeline.

Q3: Can you explain the transformation you offer in one sentence?

"This helps you go from [undesired state] to [desired state]."

If it takes a paragraph to explain exactly what your product or service does for customers, the idea isn't ready. People don't buy complexity. People buy clarity.

Your grandmother should be able to understand what problem you're solving and why someone would pay for it.

Q4: Can you build a functional version in a weekend?

Not the final, polished product. But something you can actually ship and sell.

An e-book, a mini-course, a Notion template, a consultation offer, or a simple tool. If your minimum viable version takes three months to build, it's probably too risky for a solopreneur.

Speed is your friend. When you’re testing out an idea, be quick and nimble.

How the filtering process plays out in reality

Here's what this filter catches:

Idea A: A "Revolutionary" SaaS Product

Are people already paying for something similar?

• Maybe — A similar SaaS exists, but I can’t tell if they’re profitable.

Do you have access to an audience who wants this?

• No — I'd need to build an audience from scratch.

Can you explain the transformation you offer in one sentence?

• No — it takes a few paragraphs to really explain.

Can you build a functional version in a weekend?

• No — The SaaS I’m interested in takes months to build an MVP.

Idea B: A Simple Service

Are people already paying for something similar?

• Yes — several people have a similar service that makes money

Do you have access to an audience who wants this?

• Yes — your existing audience asks about your process

Can you explain the transformation you offer in one sentence?

• Yes — It takes customers from point A to point B easily

Can you build a functional version in a weekend?

• Yes — I can spin up a landing page and a Stripe “buy” button today

See the difference running these two example ideas through our filter? One fails and one passes easily. Just imagine the hours that could be poured into that SaaS idea, with the odds of success stacked against the solopreneur.

What if your idea doesn't pass the filter test?

Kill it early. Save your resources for projects that have a fighting chance.

Or tweak your idea until it passes the filter test.

Sometimes a good idea just needs to be reformatted or sharpened in a slightly different direction. Maybe your audience is not the right fit, or your transformation isn't clear enough. Or maybe you're trying to build something too complex.

Good ideas become great when they get hyper-focused. So play with your idea and run the filter test again after you make changes. Or adjust your idea in a way where the answers become an easy “yes.”

This experiment should get you thinking creatively and asking yourself good questions you may not have considered before. This can be really fun and potentially relieving. Realizing you should simplify an idea can feel like a breath of fresh air and get you motivated all over again, in my experience anyway.

The bottom line

Most of us don't need more ideas. We need a way to filter out the duds fast.

This little test is a simple experiment for solopreneurs who can't afford to waste time on ideas that were never going to work in the first place.

But I want you to keep this in mind: Your goal isn't to “never fail.”

It's to fail fast and cheap, so you can learn, and then spend your energy on ideas that have a chance to succeed.

So, don't just build. Validate first.

Because the most expensive mistake you can make as a solopreneur isn't building the wrong thing. It's building the wrong thing for months before you realize nobody wants it.

And that’s all for today.

See you next Saturday.

P.S. If you're looking for more processes for evaluating ideas, or how to take your idea to market successfully with social media + email marketing, I pull back the curtain on my entire marketing system inside of The Creator MBA.