Is my startup idea good? 10 questions that decide it

A startup idea is good when it clears ten tests: a specific, costly problem; buyers who already spend on it; a gap competitors leave; an edge that is hard to copy; something you can build; a way to charge; a concrete first channel; a team that fits; a reason it works now; and somewhere to go if it doesn't.

That list is not arbitrary. It is the rubric Truewick scores ideas against, and it mirrors the questions an early-stage investor works through in the first ten minutes of reading a pitch. This post takes each question in turn: what to ask yourself, what a strong and a weak answer look like, and the cheapest way to find out. For the full scoring framework and where the evidence for each score comes from, see how to evaluate a startup idea.

The ten questions, and how much each one counts

Weights are the ones Truewick uses to combine the ten scores into a total out of 100. They sum to 10, so an idea scoring 7 everywhere totals 70.

1. Problem validity: is the pain specific and costly?

Ask: who exactly has this problem, and what does it cost them today in money, time or risk?

Weak answer: a familiar inconvenience people already cope with. "Splitting bills with friends is annoying" describes a real feeling, but nobody loses money to it. Strong answer: a named group losing something measurable through a concrete mechanism, such as a regulation they must comply with, a workaround that breaks, or revenue that leaks. The strongest answer of all is that people already pay to make the problem go away.

Check it cheaply: search the places your buyers complain (subreddits, G2 and Capterra reviews, industry forums) for the problem described in their words, without mentioning your solution. If you cannot find a dozen people describing it unprompted, that is your answer for now.

2. Market size: do buyers exist, and do they already spend?

Ask: how many buyers have this problem, and is there already a budget line for it?

Weak answer: a large headline number with no buyer attached ("900 million pet owners"), or a sizeable group with no willingness to pay. Strong answer: a large, identifiable set of buyers who already spend on the problem, even if they spend it on spreadsheets, agencies or a clunky incumbent.

Check it cheaply: count customers from the bottom up rather than quoting an analyst report. Our guide to sizing a market bottom-up walks through it in four steps. If the honest number is small, that is worth knowing before you build, not after.

3. Competition: what gap have others left?

Ask: what do people use today, and which of them is it worst for?

Weak answer: "we have no competitors" (you almost always do: the status quo is one) or a crowded category with no stated angle. Strong answer: a clearly named segment that incumbents underserve, ideally with a structural reason they will keep underserving it, such as their pricing model or their sales motion.

Check it cheaply: read competitors' pricing pages as strategy documents. Where their cheapest plan starts tells you which customer they have given up on. The competitor analysis guide covers how to find the rivals search will not show you.

4. Unique value: what is hard to copy?

Ask: if a well-funded competitor saw your launch tomorrow, what would they be unable to replicate in a month?

Weak answer: a feature. Better design, an AI layer, or a lower price are all real benefits and all trivially copied. Strong answer: a distinctive angle backed by an edge: proprietary data, a distribution channel you control, deep domain expertise, or a cost structure others cannot match. The highest level is an edge you can show already producing results.

Check it cheaply: write one sentence that starts "Only we can..." and show it to someone who knows the industry. If they can name a company that could do it too, keep working on the sentence.

5. Technical feasibility: can you build the first version?

Ask: can this team, at this stage, ship something people can use?

Weak answer: anything that needs a research breakthrough, heavy regulatory approval or capital far beyond a startup before the first user sees it. A middling answer is "buildable, but we don't know who builds it". Strong answer: straightforward for the people you have, or already built and in use.

Check it cheaply: list the three hardest technical parts and, for each, find one existing product or open-source project that proves it can be done. If you cannot find one for a part, that part is your real risk, and it should be the first thing you prototype.

6. Business model: who pays, and how much?

Ask: who writes the cheque, what do they pay, and what would they stop paying for to afford you?

Weak answer: "we'll figure out monetisation later", or ads with no audience yet. Strong answer: clear pricing aimed at a buyer who already has budget. The top of the scale is reserved for pricing proven by paying customers, because nothing else proves it.

Check it cheaply: put a real price on a landing page and ask for a pre-order, a deposit or a signed letter of intent. A waitlist signup measures curiosity. A payment attempt measures demand.

7. Go to market: who are the first ten customers?

Ask: can you name the first ten customers, or at least where they gather, and the specific channel that reaches them?

Weak answer: generic channels. "Social media", "SEO" and "the app stores" are places, not plans. Naming no segment at all is weaker still. Strong answer: a named segment plus a concrete, plausible channel, such as a partner who already sells to them, a marketplace they buy from, or direct outreach to a list you can actually build.

Check it cheaply: try to reach twenty people in your segment this week. How many reply, and how long it takes, is a direct measurement of your channel. The customer interviews guide covers finding them with no user base.

8. Team fit: why you?

Ask: what do you know about this problem that an equally smart outsider does not?

Weak answer: no relevant experience, or a clear mismatch, such as a non-technical solo founder proposing deep infrastructure software. Strong answer: direct experience in the domain or the technology. The best answer is founders who have lived the problem and can build the solution themselves.

Check it cheaply: write down the three insights about this market you could not have got from the internet. If the list is empty, spend a month inside the problem (a job, a contract, a stack of interviews) before committing years to it.

9. Timing: why now?

Ask: what changed in the last two years that makes this possible, or newly necessary?

Weak answer: no reason at all, or a market that is declining or already solved. A steady market with no particular trigger sits in the middle. Strong answer: a concrete recent trigger, such as a new regulation, a platform shift or a sharp drop in cost, plus visible demand right now.

Check it cheaply: if the idea would have worked equally well five years ago, ask why nobody built it then. Sometimes the answer is that someone did and failed, and their post-mortem is the most useful thing you will read this month.

10. Pivot potential: where else could this go?

Ask: if the first version struggles, what could the same technology, data or customer relationships serve instead?

Weak answer: assets that are useless anywhere else. Strong answer: clear adjacent segments that reuse the same tech or the same customers. This carries the least weight of the ten because you are not building the pivot, but it tells you how much of the work survives being wrong.

Check it cheaply: list two adjacent customers and two adjacent problems. If you can't fill all four slots, the idea is all-or-nothing, and you should be more demanding on the other nine questions.

What the ten answers look like together

Illustrative sample — not a real customer result

How to read your answers

Facts beat claims. "30 agencies pay us $500 a month" moves problem validity, business model, go to market and timing all at once, because paying customers are the strongest signal there is. "A huge, growing market" moves nothing until you show the buyers inside it.

Vagueness is a weakness, not a neutral. For the questions about your pitch specifically (unique value, go to market, business model, team fit, feasibility), an angle, channel or price you have not stated is one you do not have yet. Write it down, even if it is a guess, so it can be tested.

Know roughly where you land. As an orientation, a vague one-liner in a crowded market usually totals 20 to 40 out of 100. A plausible idea with a real problem but nothing specific or proven sits around 40 to 60. A specific idea with a clear segment and some founder edge reaches 60 to 75, and paying customers with a clear edge and a fitting team reach 75 to 90. Above 90 is rare.

Then fix the weakest answer first. A score is only useful for what it tells you to do next. The lowest dimension is usually the cheapest to improve with a week of research, and it is the one an investor will ask about.