Last week, we shared 5 resources to help you get started on your tech company.

What’s not on this list?

Building actual technology.

An O’Daily oversight? Nope!

The best tech companies start with super scrappy discovery and testing to find authentic demand.

The first step in your non-tech tech-building is answering questions like…

**How painful is the problem?
**Will people sign up?
**Will they take follow up steps?

We have run many authentic demand experiments in the Atlanta Ventures Studio including all of the ones listed below!  

Here are 7 specific tactics to test, validate, and learn before building tech.

7 Ways To Test Your Startup Idea

1. Customer Conversations

Have 20, 30, or 100 Mom Test conversations with your target user. Sounds obvious but don’t skimp on the quantity and detail.

Remember: no leading the witness!

2. Social Post

Post on social media. Does it go viral? What is the engagement or feedback? (Zinnia)

3. Sign Up Form

Create a “beta sign up” form and share via email or social channels. Track sign ups.

4. Survey

Send a survey (especially a follow up survey to your sign up form!). Do people engage? What do you learn from the feedback?

What people say they will do (or pay) is often different than reality. But the number of survey responses is very telling.

5. Simple Website & Ads

Launch a simple website. Spend $100-$500 on ads. Evaluate click thru rates. (Intown Golf Club)

Bonus: include a form to capture leads and further assess conversions.

6. Product Video

Hardware idea? Create a video showcasing your “product.” Share with your target audience to get their reaction. (Greenzie — and look where they are today!)

Animated or whiteboard explainer videos can also work for hardware, software, marketplaces, everything.

7. Consulting

Offer consulting or manual services to solve the problem. What is the willingness to pay from your target customer?

Up Next: Testing Product Ideas

Your authentic demand tests go well. 🎉🎉🎉

It’s time to start thinking about the actual product.

But — SPOILER ALERT — you can do this without building software!

Next week we’ll cover real life examples on how to fine tune your product without a single line of code.

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What are other real life ways to test an idea?? How did you know you had authentic demand even before you built a product??

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