When founders need feedback, they ask friends and family first. Terrible mistake. Your mom thinks everything you do is brilliant. Your best friend won't hurt your feelings. This inner circle kills more startups than competition ever will.

I watch this pattern constantly when my close circle asks me about their startup ideas. They think that I work with startups so I should know whether their idea will work or not. They want to validate their startup idea with me first. But they also know I'm polite and won't hurt them. Nowadays I have a template answer: "I don't know, ask your target customers."

They interpret any politeness as market validation. They confuse emotional support with actual demand. "I would buy" means nothing. "Here's my credit card" means everything. Your cousin saying it's genius doesn't equal product-market fit.

Real validation comes from strangers with problems. They don't care about your feelings. They care about solutions.

Stop asking people who love you. Start selling to people who don't.

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