Question 1

What is Venture Validator?

Accepted Answer

Venture Validator is a market research firm. Our sole mission is to provide startups and entrepreneurs the key data they need to make better business decisions. The #1 reason why startups fail is because of "No Market Need." Entrepreneurs simply don't spend enough time conducting research on the key features, customer profiles or ideal pricing for their company before they launch.

When founders build a company based on gut instincts on these topics, they set themselves up for heartbreak and heavy financial losses.

Our research helps founders validate their business premise and increase their company's chances of success.

Question 2

What types of businesses do you test?

Accepted Answer

Great question!
 
For each project, we do a soft launch where we try a variety of methods to find the avenue that returns results from those who score your product highest. Ideally, we are testing products that are novel and have some degree of uncertainty as to 1) who the ideal customer is and/or 2) how much that customer actually wants the proposed solution.

While we specialize in business-to-consumer (B2C) research projects, our services can sometimes also work with business-to-business projects.

As this feasibility often occurs on a case-by-case basis, we recommend booking a free call with one of our market research experts to clarify our capacity to serve your needs.

Question 3

What is product/market fit? Why is it so important?

Accepted Answer

Product/market fit is the term used to describe how well a product or service fits its intended market.

It is the best indicator to determine whether a product / service will be a success or failure, since it reflects the demand of the target demographic. 
 
"No product need" is the number one reason why startups fail and is why product/ market fit is the most important metrics for both founders and investors pursuing a unicorn startup.

Read more about product/market fit in this article by Gigi Levy-Weiss or this classic post from legendary investor, Marc Andreesen.

Question 4

How do you predict product/market fit?

Accepted Answer

Venture Validator assesses Product/Market Fit on a scale from 1-10 using the WOW! Factor Score. The test is pretty intuitive; we ask 50-200 target market customers how likely they are to buy a certain product. The scale ranges from "1: I'm not interested in this whatsoever" to "10: Wow! Can I buy this right now?!".

This has been tested with hundreds of businesses as a tool to determine if a product concept has hypothetical product/market fit.

Incredible insights are gained from leveraging the WOW! Factor Score. Not only can you rate the level features of your product, we can also use it to rate customer segments. 
 
Interested in learning more? Check out this article by Eric Espinosa.

Question 5

What type of services do you provide?

Accepted Answer

At Venture Validator we conduct primary market research. We design custom surveys with our clients and only allow qualified members of their target market to provide feedback on those surveys.

This allows founders to gather direct feedback from their prospective customers instead of relying on secondary data from journals and reports.

Question 6

What is the research process like for your clients?

Accepted Answer

Before any commitments are made, you can book a free intro call with one of our research experts to discuss what you're building and where our services can support your efforts.

1. If there's a good fit between your needs and our services, we'll send you a next steps email that summarizes the details about the project you've purchased. An invoice for 50% of your overall project fee will be attached.

2. Once your first invoice is paid, you'll have 3 meetings with the research expert from your intro call. On these meetings, you will work on a collaborative document that will eventually become your research survey. We'll help you optimize how you describe your product to an audience of qualified customers and then design survey questions that gather priceless insights from that audience.

3. Once you confirm that the collaborative document meets all your needs, we'll transform its contents into a survey and start collecting qualified respondents from a population that reflects your target customer base. 
 
4. Your required amount of qualified responses are gathered and our team starts analyzing the data and building your final research reports. You'll pay the second half of your research fees in order to receive your reports. 
 
After you've paid your final invoice, you'll receive your research reports. With those insights, you'll be able to build, sell and fundraise more effectively as a business owner.

Question 7

How does payment work?

Accepted Answer

Payment with Venture Validator is simple and straightforward! 
 
Half the cost of the project is paid to launch a project, and the second half is paid before your final research reports are delivered to you. 
 
For bootstrapped startups, the final payment can be scheduled as a Net-30 upon request. However, the final reports will not be delivered until this payment is made.

Question 8

How long does it take to get my final research reports?

Accepted Answer

The entire length of a project is between 10-15 business days. 
 
Step 1: Survey creation is 1-5 business days
 
Step 2: Survey response collection and analysis 3-7 business days 
 
The length of a project can be shortened significantly with strong collaboration to refine the product description.

Question 9

What if the survey respondents steal my ideas?

Accepted Answer

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice. We are not lawyers. We recommend that you speak with an attorney before making any decison that may put your startup at risk. If you need a referral, we can point you to trusted attorneys.

Quite a few nervous founders have asked us whether we sign NDAs or include NDAs within the surveys we send out to qualified members of your target audience.

As far as our team goes, we follow the same philosophy as the venture capitalists who were our original advisors:

1.) We don't sign NDAs as our research process often requires us to disclose the basic premises of your business to an audience of qualified target market customers. In some sense, the work we do requires intelligent disclosure of your ideas.

2) If your idea can be stolen by a random person on their first exposure to it in a survey, it likely means that it's not a defensible opportunity in the first place.

Customer discovery requires a founder to trust that their own expertise and relevant experience will allow them to defend their business idea from other people.

You take this risk in exchange for getting valuable feedback from qualified members of your target market who can help you build, brand and market your business more effectively as you bring it to market.

If you remain concerned about idea theft, you can file for a $140 provisional patent within the United States. This will give you some protections as you disclose your idea to the public. You'll have 1 year to finalize the patent and consider whether you'd like to expand those protections internationally.

Patents, NDAs, etc. have their place and it is important to seek a lawyer's counsel to navigate your specific situation, but it is also important that you get customer feedback to ensure the thing you are about to patent is valuable.

Since our acquisition in 2022, none of our clients have requested an NDA.
 
If you have any further questions or concerns, contact support@venturevalidator.com.

Frequently asked questions