This 5-minute search saved me 6 months

February 10, 2026

Hey there,

Many founders have no idea if their app idea has real demand.

So they spend 6 months building, hire developers, and burn through cash.

Then launch to crickets.

The app gets 200 downloads and dies.

That's $10,000 and half a year gone because they didn't spend 5 minutes validating first.

Last week, I needed to build a content feedback tool for Posted creators.

Before touching code or hiring anyone, I did something simple.

I Googled "video content idea generator" to see if this idea already existed and if people were paying for it.

First result: VidIQ. Paid tool.
Second result: Sprouto. Paid tool.
Third result: Copy AI. Paid tool.
Fourth result: Tweet Hunter. Another paid tool in this space.

That told me everything I needed to know.

People aren't just searching for this, they're paying for it at scale.

Then I checked their pricing to see what people are willing to pay and read their bad reviews to see what users hate so I could build something better.

Market validated in 5 minutes.

Same process I used for Puff Count.

I Googled "quit vaping" on Google Trends and the search volume was climbing like Bitcoin in 2017.

Then I checked Sensor Tower and saw competitors making serious money.

Market validated, so I built it.

Here's the validation framework:

Step 1: Google your problem and see if competitors exist.

Step 2: Check Google Trends to confirm people are actually searching for it.

Step 3: Use Sensor Tower to verify competitors are making revenue.

The biggest red flag isn't low search volume because niche apps can work with smaller markets.

The red flag is when you find zero competition making money.

If nobody is Googling the problem and there's no solution for it, then it's probably not a real problem worth solving.

Competition equals validation.
No competition equals no market.

A 5-minute Google search can save you 6 months of wasted work.

Peace,
Steven