This post is for founders, aspiring entrepreneurs, and product leaders in early-stage startups. The core question we’re solving: How to determine if a product is truly needed by the market—before investing months of time and capital only to realize you’re headed in the wrong direction.

Why Do Most Startups Fail?

There are countless reasons why startups fail—lack of funding, immature technology, fierce competition. But after analyzing hundreds of failed cases, one fatal flaw stands out: you built a product that nobody actually needs.

This sounds like a no-brainer: "If nobody wants it, of course it’ll fail." Yet the reality is, countless founders spend six months or more—burning through savings, building teams, shipping code—only to realize: users don’t actually use this product.

It’s not that the product was poorly built or marketing was weak. The problem was baked in from day one: the solution was solving the wrong problem.

Where Founders Waste Their Time

A typical early-stage startup allocates time like this:

  • 70% of time: Product development (coding, designing features, polishing UX)
  • 20% of time: Fundraising (pitching investors, writing decks, preparing demos)
  • 10% of time: Validating "Is anyone willing to pay for this?"

This allocation is the exact opposite of what successful startups do.

The right way to spend your time:

  • 70% of time: Demand validation—identifying real pain points and confirming users will pay to solve them
  • 20% of time: Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test core assumptions fast
  • 10% of time: Fundraising—but only after you’ve gathered market feedback

This shift may seem simple, but it cuts to the heart of a founder’s deepest cognitive biases and behavioral habits.

Building vs. Validating: The Battle Against Human Nature

Why do most founders spend six months coding instead of two weeks talking to users?

Because “building” provides instant feedback and emotional rewards.

Every line of code that compiles, every UI that comes together, gives you a rush of progress. It’s like leveling up in a game—immediate gratification.

Demand validation? Not so much.

  • You make 10 calls. Eight people say, "Sounds great," but none commit to buying.
  • You send a survey. Response rate: <5%. Data is scattered and inconclusive.
  • People say they’re interested, but their actions tell a different story.

This process is full of uncertainty, rejection, and silence. It doesn’t produce visible results or emotional payoff.

Yet this “painful” upfront work determines whether your startup lives or dies.

YC’s Decade-Old Mantra: Talk to Your Users

Y Combinator (YC), one of the world’s most successful accelerators, repeats this advice every year:

“Talk to your users.”

At nearly every Demo Day, founders tearfully admit: “Our biggest lesson? We should’ve talked to users sooner.”

This has been said hundreds of times over a decade. Yet every year, countless startups make the same mistake.

What does that tell us? It’s not a knowledge gap. It’s a human nature challenge.

Founders are builders at heart. Their instinct is to create, to solve, to ship. Asking them to pause coding and pick up the phone（to conduct interviews, gather feedback）feels as unnatural as asking a chef to put down the knife and read a market research report.

But the 1% who survive? They’re the ones who overcame that instinct.

How to Tell If a Need Actually Exists

Here’s a simple but powerful rule to avoid 99% of directional mistakes:

Before writing a single line of code, find 10 people willing to prepay.

Not 10 people who say, "I’d use that." Ten people who actually complete a payment—even if it’s just $10.

Why this works:

  • Words are cheap. Actions aren’t. People easily say they’re interested. But when real money is on the line, behavior changes instantly.

  • Payment = real pain. Only when a problem is truly painful will users pay upfront for a solution.

  • Prepayment is an early signal. If you can’t find 10 people, the market isn’t ready，or your value proposition isn’t clear.

This isn’t complicated. But it requires you to leave the office and step into the real world of your target users，listening, asking, observing.

How to Validate Demand Effectively

Step 1: Define Your Hypotheses

Before talking to users, answer three questions:

  1. Who do I think has this problem? (Target user profile)
  2. How severe do I think this problem is? (Pain level)
  3. What solution do I think they’d pay for? (Value proposition)

These are hypotheses, not conclusions. Your job is to test them.

Step 2: Find and Engage Real Users

Don’t rely on friends or colleagues. Go where your target users are:

  • Industry communities, forums, WeChat groups
  • Offline events, trade shows, store queues
  • Direct outreach via social media

Aim for 5–10 conversations per day. Do this for two weeks.

Step 3: Ask the Right Questions

Avoid leading questions like, "Would you use this?"

Use open-ended prompts:

  • "When was the last time you faced [problem]?"
  • "How did you solve it?"
  • "If a tool could save you 30 minutes, how much would you pay?"
  • "If it were available today, would you buy it?"

Record their exact words. Watch for non-verbal cues.

Step 4: Push to Prepayment

When a user expresses interest, pivot to:

“We’re in private beta. If you order now, you’ll get lifetime access at a discount. Want to lock in your spot?”

Or offer a low-risk option:

“We’re taking $10 deposits to reserve early access，fully refundable. Want to join?”

Real validation happens when someone clicks

Real validation happens when someone clicks "buy," transfers money, or signs a binding letter of intent. Until that moment, you are merely collecting polite opinions, not data. Compliments from friends and family feel good, but they don't pay the bills or prove market fit. You must push past the comfort of hypothetical interest and demand tangible commitment. If people aren't willing to put something on the line, no matter how small, you likely haven't solved a painful enough problem yet.

To ensure you are building what the market actually needs, focus on these critical actions:

  • Seek friction, not flattery: Actively look for reasons why customers might say no, as their objections reveal the true barriers to adoption.
  • Measure behavior over words: Ignore what users say they will do and strictly track what they actually do when faced with a transaction.
  • Iterate rapidly on failure: Treat every rejected offer as a data point to pivot your solution before running out of runway.

Don't let the fear of rejection keep you in the realm of guesswork. Embrace the discomfort of asking for the sale today, because that is the only path to building a startup that truly matters.