What are indie hackers saying about validating SaaS ideas before building

Most founders spend months building a product that literally nobody asked for; they treat their IDE like a security blanket. It turns out that 92% of new SaaS ventures fail within the first three years, largely due to a lack of market need. Validation isn't a formality; it is the difference between an expensive hobby and a scalable business.

TL;DR: Stop Coding and Start Talking

Validation is the process of proving people will actually pay for your solution before you write a single line of production code. Many founders rely on a "smoke test" landing page, but the real pros are moving toward concierge MVPs and direct outreach. The goal is to find "hair on fire" problems where the solution doesn't even have to be pretty. You should aim for at least 10-20 qualified conversations or a handful of pre-paid signups before committing to building. Avoid the trap of "vanity validation" like waitlist signups from people who never intend to open their wallets. Deeply understanding the customer's workflow matters more than your tech stack choice; stop worrying about Rust or Go and start sending DMs.

The Landing Page Myth

Setting up a Carrd site and running some ads is the standard advice. It feels productive, but a list of emails is often a "false positive" that leads to months of wasted development.

People will give you their email just to be polite or because they like the aesthetic. They won't, however, give you their credit card information unless the pain is significant.

The Problem With Curiosity Signups

A high conversion rate on a "Coming Soon" page might just mean your copywriting is good. It doesn't mean your product solves a problem people will pay for.

You need to ask for more than an email to gauge true intent. Consider adding a short survey after the signup or a "Click here to pre-order" button that leads to a price list.

The Power of Cold Outreach

Instead of waiting for traffic to come to you, go where your customers hang out. Whether it's Discord or LinkedIn, start conversations that do not scale.

Ask about their current workflow and where it hurts; do not pitch your solution yet. If they complain for twenty minutes about a specific task, you've found your "gap" in the market.

Scrappy Conversations vs. Scaled Ads

Running ads is expensive and often yields generic data. Talking to five real people in your target niche provides more insight than 1,000 anonymous visitors.

You can ask follow-up questions to uncover the "why" behind their frustrations. This qualitative data is what allows you to build a feature set that actually matters.

• Identify the top 3 subreddits for your niche.
• Find the most common complaints in the "New" or "Hot" sections.
• DM the authors of those complaints to ask for a 15-minute call.
• Offer a small incentive, or simply appeal to their desire to solve the problem.

Pre-selling and Paid Pilots

The ultimate validation is money in the bank. If you can't get someone to pay $10 for a promise, they probably won't pay $50 for the finished product.

Try offering a "founding member" discount to your early leads. This filters out the "tire kickers" and gives you the capital to actually hire help or buy tools.

Why Free Users Are a Distraction

Free users give the worst feedback because they have no skin in the game. They will ask for a hundred features but will never convert to a paying tier.

Focusing on paying customers from day one ensures your product roadmap is driven by revenue, not noise. If someone says "I'd use this if it were free," they are telling you the problem isn't big enough for them.

The Concierge MVP Method

Before you build a complex backend, see if you can solve the problem manually. If your SaaS idea is an automated report generator, try making the reports by hand in Google Sheets.

If people find the manual report valuable, then it's worth the effort to automate the process. This approach saves you from building complex infrastructure for a service that nobody wants.

Selling the Outcome Not the Code

Clients don't care if your backend is powered by AI or a guy in a basement with a spreadsheet. They care about the result.

By delivering the result manually, you can test different formats and data points. You will realize which parts of the process are actually hard and which parts can be skipped.

"The most successful founders are those who are willing to look stupid while doing things that don't scale. If you can solve a problem with a manual email, you don't need a SaaS yet."

Testing Pricing as Validation

Don't wait until the product is "perfect" to decide on a price. Mentioning a specific price point during your validation calls is essential.

Watch their reaction when you say the product will cost $49 per month. If they flinch, you either have a value problem or you're talking to the wrong person.

The "High-Price" Litmus Test

It's tempting to start with a very low price to get easy signups. However, a higher price point often validates the intensity of the "pain" more effectively.

If people are willing to pay a premium price for a beta product, you have found a goldmine. You can always lower the price later, but raising it is significantly harder.

Competitor Analysis as Validation

If you have competitors who are making money, that is great news. It means the market is already validated and people are already spending money to solve the problem.

Your job isn't to reinvent the wheel; it is to find the things your competitors are doing poorly. Read their bad reviews on G2 or Capterra to find your entry point.

Finding the Niche Within a Niche

Don't try to beat a giant like Salesforce at everything. Instead, build the "Salesforce for independent plumbers" or a specific tool that solves one narrow annoyance.

Narrowing your focus makes your marketing easier and your validation faster. It is much easier to be the best in a small room than an average player in a stadium.

The Build in Public Paradox

Sharing your progress on X or Mastodon is great for motivation and networking. But be careful; your audience might just be other founders who want to be nice, not people who will buy your product.

Build in public for the networking benefits, but validate in private for the revenue data. You need harsh, objective feedback from boring businesses, not likes from your peers.

Metrics That Actually Matter

Don't confuse "likes" and "retweets" with product-market fit. These are vanity metrics that feel good but don't pay the server bills.

The only metrics that matter in the validation phase are:

1. Number of demo calls booked.
2. Percentage of leads who asked "When can I buy this?"
3. Dollar amount of pre-sales or deposits collected.

Conclusion: Data Over Ego

Validation is often a bruising process for the ego; nobody likes being told their "brilliant" idea is useless. However, it's better to be told it's useless today than after six months of 80-hour work weeks.

The most successful indie hackers are those who treat their ideas as hypotheses to be tested, not truths to be defended. By focusing on direct outreach, pre-sales, and manual solutions, you can de-risk your startup and focus on what actually moves the needle. Stop looking for reasons to start coding and start looking for reasons why your product might fail; that's where the real insight lives.