As a solo founder, I’ve wasted way too much time stuck in idea paralysis:
“This already exists. I’m too late.”
“I need something huge, maybe a billion-dollar idea.”
“Maybe I’m not creative enough to be a founder.”
Sound familiar?
I built a free tool to fix that: the Indie10k Idea Validator.
What It Does
The validator gives you a quick, structured report for any SaaS idea:
✅ Pros & risks
✅ Effort level (low / medium / high)
✅ Competition snapshot
✅ Demand signals (are people even searching for this?)
✅ Example revenue models
It’s not meant to predict success. It’s just a fast gut check so you don’t waste weeks chasing something doomed from day one.
How to Use It
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Type your idea into the box.
Example: “AI tool that generates onboarding checklists.”
Hit Validate.
Read the output → pros, risks, effort, competition, demand, pricing.
Decide: move forward, or drop it and save yourself time.
If you like the results, you can also turn the idea directly into a project inside Indie10k (my platform for helping indie builders hit $10k MRR).
Why It’s Different
Most “startup validators” focus on big VC-style companies. This one is built only for micro-SaaS and solo founders. That means no TAM slides, no pitch decks, no fancy charts, no scores, no content farm — just practical feedback, enough for solo founders to make decision.
Try It Now
I’d love feedback from the Dev.to community:
- Would you use something like this before starting a side project?
- What’s the #1 thing you check before you commit to building?
Top comments (1)
It would be good to include some assurance that you're not siphoning ideas off for implementation. I'm not saying you are, but for a small startup that's a concern some will have.
Otherwise what I see looks useful for its target audiance.
Being autistic I don't feel that I could describe in useful terms the one thing I check before committing, other than my gut. Which has decades of successful and failed solo entrepreneurial experience to pull from.
Advice? Design your reality in such a way as to frame any outcome as useful information, and make sure you able to operating regardless. Then make as many mistakes as you can, as quickly as possible.