Sharpen Ideas in the Market, Not in Your Mind
Kill idea paralysis with fast, cheap experiments — waiting lists, discussion groups, and scorecards
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 97%
Priestley's antidote to the 'sofa-preneur' who never launches: you cannot resolve whether an idea is good by thinking harder about it, only by making contact with the market. So you run tests designed to fail fast and fail cheap — a waiting list landing page, a WhatsApp discussion group, or an online readiness scorecard — none of which require a product, a kitchen, an office, or a single line of code. Hundreds of sign-ups is a strong signal; crickets is a cheap, fast no, and you simply move to the next idea. Because everything in business is downstream from lead generation, the faster you get into lead generation the faster you learn whether you have a business at all.
Origin
Priestley developed it from watching thousands of entrepreneurs through his accelerator raise money, book offices and buy computers for 3-6 months before discovering nobody wanted the idea — and from running the test himself on an AI book-writing startup, where one LinkedIn post produced 750 waiting-list sign-ups against an expectation of 150.
Core principles
- 01Ideas must be tested against the market, not refined in your head.
- 02The best experiments are cheap and fast — and emotionally unattached, like a scientist's.
- 03Test the demand side before you build the supply side.
- 04Everything in business is downstream from lead generation.
- 05A waiting list only needs someone to be 5-10% sure; a buy button needs them 100% sure.
How to run it
- 1
Put up a waiting list landing page
Build a simple page saying you're launching something in this space later in the year and inviting people to join the waiting list — no commitment, no product, no certainty implied.
Pro tip Elon Musk ran waiting lists for the Model 3, the Cybertruck and the flamethrower; a million $100 deposits is what made a Cybertruck factory fundable.
- 2
Gate the list with five questions
Don't just take name and email — ask how much they'd pay, how long they think it would take, what success looks like, what failure looks like, and what they'd use instead if this didn't exist.
Pro tip The friction of a selection process increases perceived value rather than deterring people — the Harvard effect.
- 3
Launch a discussion group instead of a product
Open a WhatsApp or online discussion group around the problem, not the product, and promote it hard; a few thousand engaged members is a business waiting to be launched.
Pro tip Run daily polls in the group to keep surfacing what the market actually wants.
- 4
Add an online readiness scorecard
Build a 10-question assessment that gives people a readiness score — 'are you ready to launch a podcast?' — which generates leads and segments interest at the same time.
Pro tip People love a readiness score, so the assessment doubles as the lead magnet and the qualification step.
- 5
Cold outreach to real strangers
List every online community, group and account that already has your audience and cold-outreach a thousand people to fill the test with non-friends.
Watch out If only your friends and your mother join the group, you have measured nothing — enthusiasm from people who love you is not market signal.
- 6
Read the result without ego
Hundreds joining means go to the next step; a room of twelve confused people means this will never fly and you move to the next idea.
Watch out Being emotionally attached to the outcome defeats the purpose of the experiment.
In the wild
Priestley's team proposed an AI that helps people write a book. Instead of building, he launched a waiting list with one LinkedIn post and questions attached; 750 people joined against an expected 150, and the answers specced the product.
→ He raised £300,000 on SEIS at a £3 million valuation with no code written, nothing built and nothing designed.
For a deliberately terrible idea, the sequence is: a waiting list promising an exclusive tasting event, an ice-cream discovery WhatsApp group with daily polls, and an 'which ice cream personality are you' assessment.
→ You learn whether demand exists without a commercial kitchen, packaging, branding or a single scoop of ice cream made.
Bartlett advised a portfolio company to change its website button from 'become a member now' to 'join the waiting list'.
→ Enquiries rose 500% and conversion rose about 300%, and people who'd previously no-showed tours began apologising profusely for being an hour late.
Common mistakes
Building the supply side first
People take qualifications, raise money, book a venue and buy laptops for 3-6 months, then finally discover nobody is interested and have no idea what to do with the stuff.
Guarding the idea instead of testing it
Fear of theft keeps ideas on the sofa, but ideas aren't worth anything — the value belongs to whoever executes, and nobody steals from a person with no track record.
Is it for you?
Best for
Aspiring founders paralysed by which idea to pursue, and operators who want market validation before spending money.
Not ideal for
Deep-tech or regulated products where meaningful validation genuinely requires a built prototype.
From the transcript
“we need to sharpen our ideas in the market, not in our minds”
“So, we have to conduct uh tests where we fail fast and fail cheap if we fail at all.”
“Everything is downstream from lead generation in business”
“If you can't manufacture demand, there's no point manufacturing supply.”
From the episode
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Daniel Priestley