As a 2X founder, I'm convincing 3 strangers to pay for a product that doesn't exist. It's not a scam... it's ✨ validation strategy ✨ My first startup, I spent months building, raised $4.5M, hired a team, then tried to find people who wanted what we made. We ended up pivoting to something else. This time around with, Nicolas & I are doing things differently. Our process: 1. Pick an ensh*ttified" company + problem you have 2. List your riskiest assumptions, create hypotheses and figure out how to derisk them. 3. Get paid upfront. Goal: find 3-5 paid design partners to give feedback and co-create the product with you. 4. How? Talk to 50 people. Don't pitch. Listen! Then ask the ones who light up if they want in. If you can't get 3-5 people to pay, it's okay! You either haven't yet found the right ICP or the market saving you from building the wrong thing. For us: - We're digging deeper in the e-sign space. I despised using Docusign at my prev startup & think there is a better way in an agentic world. - We have 4 hypotheses we are derisking - We are at 21/50 people we've spoken to ON THAT NOTE: If you are sending 10+ proposals monthly and use AI heavily, send me a DM! :) --- I'm Mika, an exited venture backed startup founder, now to building to $1M with just 2 people: me and my husband. Follow for real talk on founder life, AI & tech and living time-rich. View original post on LinkedIn.