Stage 0
Idea Validation
Before you spend a dollar forming anything, make sure someone will actually pay for this.
Who exactly pays, and why?
"Small businesses" or "people who like coffee" is not a customer. You need a specific enough answer that you could go find 10 of these people this week and talk to them.
Write down: who has this problem, how are they solving it today (even a bad workaround counts), and why would they switch to paying you instead?
- I can name a specific type of person/business who has this problem
- I know how they currently deal with the problem without me
- I've actually talked to at least 5-10 of them about it (not just family/friends)
How much, and how often?
Figure out roughly what this is worth to the person who has the problem, and how often they'd need to pay (one-time, monthly, per job). This is a gut estimate at this stage, not a spreadsheet — that comes in Stage 1.
- I have a rough price point in mind, based on what people already pay for alternatives
- I understand whether this is a one-time purchase or recurring need
A simple competitor scan
If literally nobody else does anything like this, that's a yellow flag, not a green one — it usually means either the market is too small to attract competition, or it's been tried and didn't work. A crowded market with an angle you can win on is usually a better sign than an empty one.
List 3-5 alternatives (direct competitors or the workaround people use today) and one honest sentence on why someone would pick you over each.
Go / no-go checkpoint
Before moving to Stage 1, you should be able to answer yes to most of the checklist items above. If you can't, that's useful information now — it's expensive information later, after you've paid filing fees and signed a lease.