3 founders shared this exact problem this week

Hi there,

In the last 24 hours alone, three founders told me that they thought they had “validated” their idea but after spending months, and in one case, $25,000, they realized that they needed to “take a step back to validate”.

If you have ever felt this way, I want you to know two things.

1. You are not taking a step back.

2. You have just found your real starting point.

Most founders confuse signals with validation. They think validation means:

• getting survey responses

• someone said, “I’ll pay if you ___”

• many waitlist signups / LOIs

• adjacent professionals showed interest

• investors said they'‘d invest if ___

• doing ‘customer discovery’

That is not validation.

In my Happy Paying Customers System, validation means two very specific things:

1. One real person who fits your ideal customer pays you to solve the problem you’d like

2. More people like that first customer pay you

This is a high bar but the truth is, everything else is a hypothesis.

The moment you realize that your validation is not actually done yet is not a setback. It is clarity.

It is the moment when you stop acting as if you are in a later stage and start doing the right work for the stage you are actually in.

AND, the best part? This means you can take things off your ‘must do’ list that are not serving you at this current stage in your business. Can you imagine that? How good would it feel to only be working on tasks that move your business forward?

Where most founders accidentally leap ahead

In my Happy Paying Customers™ System I have 5 stages from idea to 100+ Happy Paying Customers.

(This is a birds-eye view of the actual deeper decision tree founders use as part of the Happy Paying Customers™ System that helps them quickly assess where they are in the journey and identify their priorities for right now).

Within the first stage - there is a lot of murkiness, though. How do you go from idea to your first Happy Paying Customer? The answer to this lies in first assessing your starting point.

How to figure out your true starting point

To move from idea to early Happy Paying Customers, you need to know where you actually are right now. In the Happy Paying Customers™ System I break this down into two parts:

Part one: clarity on “who you solve what problem for”

Founders usually fall into one of these starting points:

1. Clear on both - who and problem

2. Clear on who, fuzzy on the problem

3. Clear on the problem, fuzzy on who

4. General idea about both

If you’re wondering, what ‘clear’ means, you are right to question that. This is where many founders go wrong - they think they are being clear enough, when they are not. I go over these 4 starting points and what clear means in a previous blog here. Here are examples to illustrate this:

Part two: has anyone who fits that profile paid you yet

If the answer is no, you are in the “get someone to pay you” stage (stage 1).

If the answer is yes, your next question is whether that is a customer you want to replicate. If not, you are still in validation, but with better information.

Ultimately, everyone has to work towards clarity on both, proven by Happy Paying Customers. However, these starting points are not good or bad. They simply determine your priorities right now. And as a CEO, the most important job you’ll always have is to pick the right priorities.

What to do next: the 3 steps to move toward your first Happy Paying Customer

Once you know your true starting point, your next step is not to build more, polish more, or promote more. It is to validate one thing at a time with the right evidence.

Here is the simplest way to do that.

1. Choose one who x problem to (in)validate

You are not trying to “perfect your positioning” in one go.
You are choosing one specific who x problem pair to pressure test next.

Start from your current starting point:

• Clear on both: pick the sharpest version of your who x problem.

• Clear on who, fuzzy on problem: keep the who constant and brainstorm the problems you might want to solve for them.

• Clear on problem, fuzzy on who: keep the problem constant and brainstorm customers who might have this problem, then prioritize.

• General idea about both: brainstorm a few options for who x problem, then prioritize

In prioritizing, you’ll use key decision-making criteria like access to customers and willingness to pay, depending upon your starting point, market insights, and previous customer conversations.

2. Run research-sales conversations

The research-sales methodology is a cornerstone of my Happy Paying Customers™ System at the earliest stages. These are not discovery calls. These are not “customer interviews.” These are structured conversations designed to help you understand:

• the real world your customer lives in

• which problems are painful enough to pay for

• the ‘one-away’ question to get them to open up about it

• how they currently solve that problem

• how to build a ‘bridge’ over to a sale

This is how founders using the System turn strangers into dream customers, because you learn what actually drives their decisions instead of guessing.

3. Run micro-tests to (in)validate quickly

Micro-tests are small, controlled experiments designed to help you validate or invalidate the 3 pillars of your business:

• customer (are these your people?)

• positioning (are you solving the right problem in the right way?)

• playbook (can you reach and convert them consistently?)

Again, what you are focused on micro-testing, how you measure success, and much more will depend on where you are right now. e.g. in stage 1, micro-tests are entirely about the customer.

When founders do this work, the result is immediate clarity.
Not “I think I validated.”
Not signals.
Not vibes.
But real evidence that unlocks your next stage.

These steps have been part of the Happy Paying Customers™ System that’s been used by more than 110 founders. After working with hundreds of founders, I saw a clear pattern:

Most startup advice skips the real early work. The messy, uncertain 0 → 1 → 10 Happy Paying Customers stage where hope turns into proof. Proof so you can then scale what’s actually working.

That’s why I designed two clear paths for new founders who have recently escaped corporate and are ready to build their legacy:

• Validate Your Idea (12 weeks): go from idea to your first Happy Paying Customer through structured micro-tests, live coaching (max 4 founders), and direct Slack access as you execute.

• De-Risk Your Business (12 months): build a replicable go-to-market playbook to 100+ Happy Paying Customers with quarterly 1:1 strategy sessions, micro-test audits, and a done-for-you content blueprint.

If you’re in that “idea → first 10 customers” stage, you don’t need to guess your way through it, you need structure, clarity, and proof.

I’ll be working personally with founders who join these paths via live coaching and asynchronous Slack feedback. I’ve been told repeatedly that these paths are priced (far too) accessibly. This is by design. I want them to be no-brainers because my mission is to support more than 1000 founders in building their dream business (and life).

If you want to start 2026 on the path to growing the business of your dreams, the time to get on the right path is now. I can only accept 3 founders. Learn more and snag a spot here.