I run each business idea through 11 filters before I commit.
These filters sharpened over years of building, killing and pivoting my own projects. I call the process Ideacide. Kill bad ideas before they cost you years.
HeadsUp, Multi and Charm survived the filters.
The 11 Filters
1. Personal use. Will I use it? I have to be my own first customer.
2. Daily or more use. The more I use it, the faster it develops and improves. Daily use forces empathy. It compresses feedback loops.
3. Platform potential. Hamilton Helmer’s Seven Powers maps how companies build durable advantages:
- Network effects
- Switching costs
- Scale economies
- Counter-positioning
I look for at least one. If someone could replicate months of accumulated work in a weekend, one of these powers is missing.
4. Counter-positioning. This is one of the Seven Powers and it’s important enough to be its own filter. Can I build something the incumbents can’t copy? Counter-positioning means your business model would hurt an incumbent’s existing revenue stream if they adopted it. Netflix streaming vs. Blockbuster stores. Being different is good. If you’re entering a market with 50 direct competitors doing the same thing, it fails this test.
5. Mutually reinforcing with my portfolio. Does it feed what I’m already building? Each product should make the others stronger. A win in one compounds across others. Real estate would be a distraction. It doesn’t return value back to the things I’m already building. The right idea strengthens everything else.
6. Gives me energy to build it. I have to feel the pull. This is founder-nature fit. The ideas that survive the other 10 filters but drain me are the most dangerous because the logic says yes but my body says no.
7. High-to-medium revenue proximity or urgency. It’s close to the money or it solves a very urgent, painful problem. Products that are “nice-to-have” sit in the backlog forever. Products that eliminate pain or unlock revenue get bought.
8. Low marginal costs. Can it scale without costs scaling with it? Software and digital products cost almost nothing per additional customer. Physical goods, service hours and per-unit fulfillment grow linearly. Low marginal costs mean I can serve 10x more customers without 10x more spend. And if revenue dips, I’m not bleeding on fulfillment or stuck with inventory.
9. Market size. It can help at least 10,000 businesses or at least 10 million people. If the addressable market is too small, the ceiling constrains everything else.
10. Passive value delivery. Can it run in the background? The best products deliver value without requiring the customer to do anything.
11. Evidence of demand. Is there signal?
- Keyword research
- Community conversations
- App Store reviews
- Reddit threads
- Competitor traction
I look for people already searching, asking or paying for something adjacent. Sometimes being your own first customer (filter 1) is all the evidence you need. Demand has to exist before I build for it.
Download the Ideacide checklist (PDF) and run your next idea through all 11 filters. Interactive checkboxes. One page. Print it or fill it on screen.
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How many of your ideas would pass all 11 filters?
