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Too many founders<\/a> start with the product. They get excited, build something, and then scramble to figure out if anyone actually wants it.<\/p>\n I almost did the same. Technically, I started by generating silly AI images of my boss to make my coworkers laugh. But when I saw the potential of the tools<\/a> I was playing with \u2014 and how accessible they were becoming \u2014 I realized I could turn it into something real.<\/p>\n I didn’t have a background in AI or deep learning. But with open-source tools like Stable Diffusion suddenly available, people like me could build things that felt like magic.<\/p>\n And like most entrepreneurs<\/a>, I wanted to move fast. But instead of rushing to build, I gave myself a reality check. I asked three hard questions before writing a line of code. That checklist became the foundation of my business \u2014 and helped me avoid wasting months (and money) on a product no one wanted.<\/p>\n These same questions apply whether you’re launching a SaaS company, a consumer product, a service-based business, or, yes, an AI tool.<\/p>\n Related: AI Isn’t Plug-and-Play \u2014 You Need a Strategy. Here’s Your Guide to Building One.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n 1. Is there real demand?<\/p>\n Before investing anything in product development<\/a>, I set up a test. I opened an Etsy store selling AI-generated pet portraits during the holidays. It was clunky. Every order meant I was manually training models and fulfilling them by hand.<\/p>\n But people paid. They loved the results. It wasn’t scalable \u2014 yet \u2014 but that didn’t matter. It gave me proof:<\/p>\n This kind of early signal is more important than a sleek prototype or a detailed roadmap. For you, it might mean selling a simplified version of your offer, pre-selling a service, or running a paid pilot. The goal is the same: confirm there’s real demand before you build at scale.<\/p>\n 2. Will people pay me \u2014 and how?<\/p>\n After validating interest, I started experimenting with pricing. We tested $15, then $25. We ran ads on Reddit. Some worked, most didn’t. I tried subscriptions \u2014 but quickly realized that running custom-trained models on demand was too expensive to support recurring plans at an early stage.<\/p>\n So I switched to a one-time payment model. Simple, low-friction, no complicated onboarding. We started at $9.99, and conversions were strong. Over time, we added higher-tier pricing \u2014 but from day one, the business had to make financial sense.<\/p>\n Many people advised offering a freemium version. I considered it, but GPU costs made that unrealistic. Instead, I built a free tool that looked like our main offering (an AI headshot generator) but was actually a low-cost background remover. It gave users a taste of the experience and warmed them up to buy. And it converted.<\/p>\n The takeaway? Revenue<\/a> models aren’t just about pricing \u2014 they’re about sustainability. Founders often over-index on what’s ideal for the user and forget what’s viable for the business.<\/p>\n 3. Can I actually reach people?<\/p>\n I didn’t have an audience. I didn’t have connections or media buzz. But I had Reddit.<\/p>\n I started joining threads where people were talking about AI headshots. I added value, offered comparisons, answered questions \u2014 and eventually, shared my own product. That got us our first 100 customers. We used Google Ads to scale to 1,000.<\/p>\n It wasn’t viral. It wasn’t pretty. But it worked. Why? Because I focused on solving the hardest part of distribution first: attention and trust.<\/p>\n When people think about go-to-market, they think channels. But it’s better to think in terms of risk:<\/p>\n If the answer is no, it doesn’t matter how good the product is.<\/p>\n Related: AI Will Define Your Brand If You Don’t \u2014 Here’s How to Take Control<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Don’t build until you can answer these three questions<\/p>\n Every founder wants to build something great. But building too early \u2014 or on shaky assumptions \u2014 can kill even the best ideas.<\/p>\n A rough product built on real answers will always beat a polished one built on hope.<\/p>\n So before you start building or investing heavily in a new product or service, ask yourself:<\/p>\n Everything else can wait.<\/p>\n\n
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