Ten Conversations Before One Rupee

Before spending on a logo, a website or a company registration, spend on something cheaper and harder: ten real conversations with people who might actually pay. Not friends who will be kind. Not family who will worry. Potential customers.

The method matters. Don't pitch — ask. How do they handle the problem today? What have they already tried and abandoned? What would a solution be worth in actual money? Listen for the difference between 'interesting' (politeness) and 'when can I get this?' (demand). Only the second builds businesses.

Ten conversations will do one of three things. Confirm the idea — rarer than you hope. Redirect it — most common, and priceless: the real problem is usually two doors away from the one you imagined. Or quietly bury it — painful for an evening, and a year of your life saved.

People avoid these calls because a dream examined might die. But a dream that can't survive ten conversations was never going to survive a market.