47-Point Startup Idea Validation Checklist (Free Download)
The complete pre-build checklist for any startup idea. 47 yes/no questions across 7 dimensions. Score 40+ to GO, 30-39 for CONDITIONAL GO, under 30 means the idea isn't ready yet.
How to Use This Checklist
Read each question. Answer yes or no — honestly. No “sort of”, no “mostly”. If the answer requires more than one sentence to explain, it's a no.
At the end, count your yes answers. The scoring guide is at the bottom.
1. Problem & Pain (7 questions)
- Can you describe the problem in one sentence without using the words “platform”, “ecosystem”, or “solution”?
- Does someone experience this pain at least weekly?
- Are people currently paying money to solve this (even with a workaround)?
- Have you spoken to 10+ people who have this problem (not friends and family)?
- Do people search Google for this problem (check Search Volume via Ahrefs/SEMrush)?
- Are there active Reddit/Facebook/Slack communities about this problem?
- Can you name 3 people you could call today who have this problem?
2. Market Size (6 questions)
- Is your TAM > $1B (otherwise you're building a lifestyle business)?
- Can you realistically capture 1% of SAM in year 3?
- Is the market growing (>10%/year CAGR)?
- Do you have a bottoms-up revenue calculation (not just “1% of $10B TAM”)?
- Is your target geography clear (US only? EU? Global?)?
- Are regulatory barriers in your market surmountable within 12 months?
3. Competition Reality Check (6 questions)
- Did you find at least 5 real competitors (if 0, the market may not exist)?
- Can you articulate why each competitor is imperfect (not just “we're better”)?
- Is there a reason the market isn't already solved (timing, technology, regulation)?
- Can you name the one company that could copy you in 90 days with a $10M budget?
- Is your competitive advantage based on network effects, data, or switching costs — not just features?
- Would this idea exist if OpenAI/Google/Meta launched it next month?
4. Unit Economics (7 questions)
- Is your gross margin > 60% (software) or > 40% (physical product)?
- Can you estimate your CAC from first principles (not just “we'll use SEO”)?
- Is LTV > 3×CAC (rule of thumb for sustainable SaaS)?
- What is your payback period? Is it under 12 months for SaaS?
- Can you reach $1K MRR without paid advertising?
- What does 1000 paying customers look like in revenue, headcount, and infrastructure cost?
- Is your pricing hypothesis validated by at least 5 price-anchoring conversations?
5. Execution & Team (7 questions)
- Can you ship an MVP in < 8 weeks?
- Do you have the skills to build version 1, or do you need a technical co-founder?
- Can you reach your first 100 customers without a sales team?
- Do you have an unfair advantage (domain expertise, existing audience, proprietary data)?
- Can you name your first 10 customers by company name?
- Do you have 18 months of runway to reach PMF?
- Is your co-founder (if any) aligned on equity, commitment, and exit expectations?
6. AI & Technology Risk (7 questions)
- Could an AI agent (ChatGPT, Gemini) replace your product's core feature in 18 months?
- Could OpenAI, Google, or Meta build this as a free feature of their platform?
- Could a developer clone your MVP in < 14 days using AI coding tools?
- Is your moat based on data network effects (better with more users) rather than UI?
- If LLMs get 10× cheaper next year, does your unit economics improve or get destroyed?
- Is there a no-code tool (Zapier + GPT + Airtable) that already does 80% of what you plan?
- Have you run your idea through adversarial AI analysis (not just asked ChatGPT)?
7. GO / NO-GO Decision (7 questions)
- Would you invest $10,000 of your own money into this idea right now?
- Are you willing to work on this for 5 years minimum?
- Can you articulate your exit strategy (IPO, acquisition, lifestyle business)?
- Have you eliminated the top 3 reasons it could fail?
- Do you have at least 1 paying letter of intent or pre-sale?
- Is this a “painkiller” (must-have) or “vitamin” (nice-to-have)?
- After reading all 46 questions above — do you still want to build this?
Scoring
- 40-47 yes answers — GO. Your idea is strongly validated across all dimensions. Build it.
- 30-39 yes answers — CONDITIONAL GO. The idea has potential but specific risks must be resolved first. Identify the no answers and fix them before building.
- Under 30 yes answers — The idea is not ready. Do not start building. Either refine the idea until you can answer yes to more questions, or kill it and move on.
The Shortcut
Going through 47 questions yourself takes 2-3 hours and requires you to be honest with yourself — which is the hardest part. BizChecker AI runs all 47 dimensions (and more) automatically using 6 adversarial AI models. You upload your idea, get back a full scorecard in 60 minutes, $39 one-time.
Want to see what a real scorecard looks like? See our public analyses of Stripe (92/100, strong GO), Figma (89/100, GO), and Zapier (90/100, GO) — same framework, applied to billion-dollar companies retrospectively.
Validate your idea — $39
Skip the 47 self-scored questions. Get the same analysis from 6 adversarial AI models in 60 minutes. Honest verdict, concrete risks, a 30-day action plan.
Validate your idea — $39
6 AI models attack your business idea and give a GO/NO-GO verdict with competitor map, risk list, and 30-day action plan.
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