Startup Validation and Market Research
These tools help you answer the questions that come before a product: does the problem exist, who has it, how many of them are there, and can you reach them profitably. Founders preparing for customer interviews, an accelerator application or a first investor meeting use them to write evidence down in a form other people can check.
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All Validation & Research (6)
Idea Validation Framework
Validate startup ideas through market researchUser Survey Designer
Create effective user research surveys with templatesCompetitor Analysis Tool
Framework for analyzing competitors and market positioningMarket Sizing Calculator
Calculate TAM, SAM, SOM for market analysisTAM Calculator
Size a market top-down, bottom-up or by problem value, then narrow it to SAM and SOMLTV-CAC Calculator
Calculate Customer Lifetime Value and Acquisition Cost metrics
Which tool do I need?
Plan how to test an idea before writing code
Write the problem, target market, key assumptions and success criteria, and pick validation methods from interviews to pre-sales.
Write survey questions that do not lead the answer
Draft short text, choice and rating questions, preview them as a respondent would, and copy the text into your survey platform.
Keep competitor research in one place
Record each rival's pricing, audience, strengths and weaknesses, then download every profile as a Markdown report.
Choose between top-down and bottom-up market sizing
The TAM SAM SOM Calculator supports top-down, bottom-up and value-theory TAM, so you can run two methods and see whether they agree.
Turn a market size into customers and revenue
Start from an industry figure and get the number of customers your SOM represents and projected annual revenue at your monthly price.
See whether a customer is worth its acquisition cost
Calculate LTV, CAC, their ratio and the payback period, with a health label from critical below 2:1 to healthy from 3:1.
About Validation & Research
A typical pass starts in the Idea Validation Framework, where you list key assumptions and choose methods such as interviews or pre-sales; its readiness score measures how complete the plan is, not whether the idea is good. The User Survey Designer drafts the questions, and you paste them into Google Forms or Typeform, since it does not host surveys. The Competitor Analysis Tool records what you learn about rivals, including non-product alternatives such as spreadsheets and agencies. Then come the numbers. The TAM SAM SOM Calculator lets you size the total market top-down, bottom-up or by value and narrows it with six percentage filters, while the Market Sizing Calculator starts from an industry figure and turns SOM into a customer count and annual revenue at your price. The LTV-CAC Calculator closes the loop by checking whether a customer is worth what it costs to win.
Nothing here looks anything up. Industry sizes, market shares and competitor prices are whatever you type, so note your sources. Watch the units: bottom-up TAM needs annual revenue per customer, subscription churn must be monthly to match monthly revenue, and CAC should be fully loaded with salaries, tools and agency fees, not just ad spend. Every tool runs in the browser and saves drafts to local storage on that device.
Guides
- Validating a Startup Idea: Interviews, Surveys and CompetitorsTurn an idea into testable assumptions, interview without leading (The Mom Test), write survey questions that measure something, and map the alternatives you compete with.
- TAM, SAM and SOM: Sizing a Market Top-Down and Bottom-UpWhat TAM, SAM and SOM really mean, a worked bottom-up example with customer counts and ACV, how to cross-check it top-down, and the mistakes investors spot first.
- LTV:CAC and CAC Payback: Unit Economics With Real NumbersHow to calculate LTV from churn and gross margin, fully loaded CAC, the 3:1 rule and CAC payback months, with worked SaaS and e-commerce examples and the usual traps.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as real evidence when validating a startup idea?
Behaviour counts more than opinion. People describing a recent time they had the problem, paying a deposit, signing a letter of intent or using a manual version of the service is strong evidence. Compliments, survey answers about future intent and friends saying they would use it are weak evidence.
Which market sizing calculator should I use, TAM SAM SOM or Market Sizing?
Use the TAM SAM SOM Calculator when you want to choose the TAM method and justify each narrowing filter separately. Use the Market Sizing Calculator when you already have an industry figure and want to see what SOM means in customers and annual revenue at your price.
Do the validation tools pull market or competitor data from the web?
No. None of them fetch data. Market sizes, competitor details and churn rates are the numbers you enter, which keeps your research private but means the output is only as reliable as your sources. Put citations in the notes fields so others can check them.
Why do market size and LTV results swing so much with small changes?
Because they multiply several percentages together. Halving one filter halves SOM, and a monthly churn of 2% instead of 4% doubles subscription LTV. Run a cautious and an optimistic case and present the range rather than a single figure.
Should I size the market before or after talking to customers?
After a first round of conversations. Interviews tell you who has the problem badly enough to pay, which defines the bottom-up customer count and price you need for a credible SAM and SOM. A market size built before that is mostly a guess about who your customer is.
Can I use these validation tools for an internal product or side project?
Yes. The validation plan, survey drafter and competitor notebook work the same for an internal tool or a hobby project, and LTV:CAC applies to any business with acquisition costs. Only investor-facing figures such as TAM matter less when nobody is raising money.