Quickly validate if your idea is worth anything | Starter Story

When Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story, set out to validate business ideas, he didn't rely on gut feelings or expensive market research firms. Instead, he built a repeatable, low-cost system using free and cheap tools that anyone can access. The core insight is that most people skip the validation step entirely—they fall in love with an idea and build it before checking if anyone actually wants it. Walls argues that the smartest move is to spend a few hours with Google Trends and a keyword tool before writing a single line of code or buying inventory.

The Two-Tool Validation Engine

Walls’s validation process hinges on two free or cheap tools: Keyword Everywhere (a browser extension) and Google Trends. The goal is not to prove an idea is a guaranteed winner, but to quickly rule out bad ones and identify which markets have genuine, sustained interest.