Thread by @TomBilyeu

If 1,000 people won't pay you $100, you don't have a business. You have an expensive hobby with a logo.

Here's the $100,000 validation test that will spare you months of wasted effort:

Forget audience. Forget aesthetics.

Start with one brutal equation:

1,000 × $100 = $100,000

That's your test.

If you can't clearly answer:

• Who the 1,000 are
• Why they would pay
• What result they get
• How you'll reach them

…you're not ready to build.

You're still mythologizing your idea instead of modeling it.

Here's the framework:

1. Define the Buyer:

Not "busy professionals" → "Marketing managers at 50-person SaaS companies who manually create reports every Friday and hate it"

2. Clarify the Result:

Not "save time" → "Get your Friday afternoons back and look like a data genius to your CEO"

3. Map the Distribution:

Not "social media" → "LinkedIn groups for marketing managers, Slack communities for SaaS professionals, industry newsletters they actually read"

4. Model the Math:

Not "lots of traffic" → "1,000 visitors × 15% opt-in × 20% call booking × 30% close rate × $100 = $9,000 monthly revenue"

This is how you stop lying to yourself.

This is how you avoid a 6-month build that leads to zero buyers.

Only once you can pass the $100,000 Test are you ready to build.

I built Zero to Launch GPT to run this simulation for you in under 30 minutes. Get it for free here: buff.ly/u6IHwac