“That’s a great idea. I would totally buy that.”

Those may be the six most dangerous words a new entrepreneur can hear.

Okay, maybe dangerous is a little dramatic. Nobody has ever been rushed to the emergency room because their aunt liked their business idea.

But I have watched plenty of people spend thousands of dollars building businesses based on statements almost exactly like that.

A friend says they love the idea.

Your spouse thinks it could work.

You post it in a Facebook group and 37 people click “Love.”

Maybe you even run a poll:

“Would you buy this?”

Eighty percent say yes.

You feel validated.

Then you actually build the thing, put a price on it, and ask people to buy.

Suddenly, everybody gets quiet.

Somewhere along the way, “I would totally buy that” turned into “That’s really cool. Keep me posted.”

Welcome to entrepreneurship.

To validate a business, measure commitments instead of compliments.

One of the hardest things about evaluating a business idea is separating what people say from what they are actually willing to do.

People generally want to be nice to you.

If you tell your friends you are thinking about opening a bakery, most of them are not going to respond:

“Justin, I have reviewed the competitive landscape and I see no compelling reason why the Richmond metropolitan area requires another source of carbohydrates.”

They are going to say:

“That sounds awesome!”

And they may sincerely mean it.

The problem is that sincerity does not tell us whether they will drive 15 minutes to your bakery and hand you $7 for a cinnamon roll.

That requires a different level of evidence.

I like to think about validation as a three-tier ladder.

Tier 1: Compliments ($0 Value)

At the bottom are compliments.

“I love it.”

“That’s such a good idea.”

“You should definitely do that.”

“I would buy that.”

Social media polls generally belong here too.

These statements can make you feel good, and there is nothing wrong with that. Starting a business is hard. Take the encouragement wherever you can get it.

Just don’t confuse encouragement with market research.

A compliment requires almost nothing from the person giving it. There is no money at risk. There is very little time invested. There is no inconvenience.

That makes compliments weak evidence of actual demand.

The same problem occurs when entrepreneurs ask friends and family whether they like an idea. Your mother may genuinely believe you have invented the greatest business since Amazon.

She also has pictures of you in the bathtub.

Her objectivity is questionable.

Tier 1 can still be useful early in the process. If everybody immediately hates an idea or seems confused by it, that tells you something.

Positive feedback, however, should move you up the ladder, not send you straight into launching the business.

Tier 2: Attention Commitments (Medium Value)

The next level requires people to give you something scarce:

Their time or attention.

Suppose you are considering a meal-prep service for busy parents.

You ask ten parents whether they think it sounds useful.

Nine say yes.

Nice.

Now ask those same people to sit down for a 20-minute interview about how they currently handle weeknight meals.

Maybe six agree.

Then create a simple landing page explaining the service and ask people to join a waitlist to be notified when it launches.

Maybe 40 people visit the page and 12 give you their email addresses.

We are starting to learn something.

Those people have made a small commitment.

They stopped scrolling.

They filled something out.

They gave you contact information.

They spent 20 minutes talking to you.

The commitment still does not prove they will buy, but the evidence is getting stronger because participation has a cost.

This is also why I prefer behavior-based validation whenever possible.

Instead of asking:

“Would you be interested in a service that does X?”

Give someone the opportunity to take a real action.

Join the waitlist.

Schedule an interview.

Request pricing.

Book a demo.

Sign up for early access.

Watch what people actually do.

Their behavior usually teaches you more than their predictions about what they might do someday.

Tier 3: Financial Commitments (Gold Standard)

Eventually, validation reaches the evidence businesses actually survive on:

Money.

A pre-order.

A deposit.

A paid pilot.

A signed letter of intent.

An actual customer.

Someone handing you money changes the conversation because buying requires a tradeoff.

That $50 could have been spent somewhere else.

The customer has decided your offer is valuable enough to give something up to get it.

This is also where pricing becomes part of validation.

Someone telling you:

“I would definitely pay for that.”

is Tier 1.

Someone paying you $25 is Tier 3 evidence that they will pay $25.

It does not prove they will pay $100.

That distinction matters.

Product-market fit includes the offer, customer, problem, and price. A business can solve a real problem and still fail because customers do not value the solution enough to pay what the business needs to charge.

That is why I get nervous when first-time founders spend months building before they have asked anyone to make a meaningful commitment.

They build the website.

Create the logo.

Order inventory.

Form the LLC.

Print business cards.

Build the app.

Then, after investing thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours, they finally conduct the most important experiment:

Will anybody buy this?

That experiment should happen much earlier.

You may not always be able to collect money before launching. Some business types make that easier than others. A consultant can sell a pilot engagement much more easily than someone developing a physical product that requires manufacturing. Though it is not impossible (see all the people on Kickstarter).

That is fine.

Move as high up the commitment ladder as your business reasonably allows.

The goal is to keep increasing the quality of your evidence before increasing the amount of money and time you are risking.

A compliment can lead to an interview.

An interview can lead to a waitlist.

A waitlist can lead to a pre-order.

A pre-order can eventually lead to a real business.

Each step gives you better information about whether the idea deserves the next investment of your time and money.

Weekend Exercise:
Climb the Commitment Ladder

Take one business idea you have been considering.

If you do not have an idea yet, pick a simple one for the exercise. You are practicing the process.

Write down three ways you could test it:

Tier 1: Compliment Test

Explain the idea to five people who might realistically be customers. Record their reactions, but don’t treat positive feedback as validation.

Tier 2: Attention Test

Create one action that requires a small commitment. Ask for a 15-minute interview, create a basic waitlist, ask someone to request more information, or have potential customers complete a detailed survey.

Track how many people you ask and how many actually follow through.

Tier 3: Financial Test

Write down the simplest way someone could make a financial commitment before you fully build the business.

Could you take a pre-order?

Offer a paid pilot?

Request a refundable deposit?

Sell the service manually to your first customer?

You do not necessarily need to run the Tier 3 test this weekend. I want you to figure out what that test would look like.

Then look at the evidence you currently have for your idea and classify it.

If all you have are compliments, you have learned something important.

You know exactly which rung of the ladder to climb next.