Get your idea validated, before anything else

I have kinda become the 'go to' guy for start up advices especially when it comes to technology related, like software stack, architecture, backend etc etc.

I am often approached by friends or people at startup meets, that they have this great idea and they are so excited and enthusiastic about their next Snapchat.

So, they ask:

- what name I should keep
- how should be my logo
- what should it represent
- how do I get my logo designed
- how do I get a domain
- how do I get a web hosting and which one
- how do I get my site built
- how do I get my site designed
- how do I get payment gateway installed
- which e-commerce software I should use?
- are open source tools better?

etc etc.

These are all wrong questions.

First what you should ask yourself is, whether people would buy your idea/app/whatever. Its called validating your idea.

real life example: someone I know wanted to start online store of vintage watches. He's a watch enthusiast and one day he had this dream of selling costly vintage watches, making them available to Indians.

He started worrying about all the wrong things and investing major chunk in these nonsense, without knowing whether it would work or not.

I give him an earful, and I planned a simple test whether it would work or not. I started a ebay store and listed couple of watches.

- I did not spend any dime, ebay listing is free
- I don't need to have inventory to list
- I did not need to have worry about logo and other nonsense
- I did not have to worry about payment gateways or handling billing

I'd leave to you guys whether people were interested in vintage watches or not.