There is only one way to find out.

It came to you in the shower, on a long drive, or maybe in a fever dream at 3 AM.

You’ve sketched it on a napkin. You’ve bought the domain name.

You might have even set up your LLC or talked to a patent attorney.

You feel that electric buzz. This is it. The one.

The idea has the potential to make a fortune and leave a mark on your industry.

You’re ready to find someone to “fund the project” or “build the platform”.

Let me stop you right there.

That idea is (statistically speaking) not as sound as it appears.

Not because the market isn’t there.

Not because you aren’t a genius in your industry.

But because you don’t know what you don’t know.

Before you go back to talk to a single developer or investor, before you think the word “development”, you need to answer several important questions.

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A word of warning. (another one.)

The world of ideas is a beautiful, hopeful place.

The world of engineering is a brutal, unforgiving hellscape governed by the cold, hard laws of physics and logic.

And the gap between the two is a graveyard filled with the fortunes and reputations of well-meaning founders.

Before you even get the chance to present to a liquid venture capital firm, (or be ripped off by offshore development charlatans), critical checks and balances need to be processed.

We’ve seen four horsemen of the technical apocalypse that kill 99% of technical ideas.

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The “magic wand” problem.

This is the founder who says,

“I want an app that listens to a dog bark and tells me what it wants for dinner.”

Sounds great. It’s also impossible.

Founders, especially brilliant non-technical ones, often assume that if they can imagine it, a computer can do it.

They think “AI” is a magic wand you can wave at any problem.

They have assumptions that are unchecked, that will stop the idea dead in it’s tracks.

In some cases, they ask for features that would require technology that hasn’t been invented yet.

They might as well be asking us to build them a time machine.

On a serious note, you need to know if your core concept is grounded in reality or if you’re asking for magic.

Because we don’t sell magic wands. No one does.

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The unchecked technical gap.

This is the invisible, silent killer

I’ll give you one example (among many):

Let’s say your entire business model relies on a single, critical piece of data that you cannot get.

“I want to build an platform that shows the real-time inventory of every store in the UK.”

Great idea. How are you getting that data?

Do those stores have public APIs?

Have you secured contracts with their point-of-sale system providers?

The answer is almost always “Uh… I figured we could just… you know… pull it.”

No. You can’t.

That idea is an empty well.

You can spend a million dollars building the most beautiful bucket in the world, but if there’s no water down there, you’re going to die of thirst.

You need to know if the data, the integrations, the APIs that must exist… actually exist.

And… that you can access them.

Unchecked technical assumptions are a minefield for first time (or non-technical) founders.

We WILL make sure that your idea is sound, and if it is not – we will tell you.

The big leagues sniff test.

Okay, so your idea is technically possible, good work. One down, three to go.

The next question is about making sure that you are not being lied to.

Are you being told that your world changing, disruptive platform can be built for less than the GDP of a small European nation?

You have a budget in mind. Maybe it’s $50k. Maybe it’s $250k.

You talk to a few offshore agencies (ahem… sweatshops).

They nod their heads, say “yes, yes, very possible,” and quote you a number that fits neatly inside your budget.

Let me be crystal clear.

If they say it’s cheap, they. are. trying. to. take. you. for. a. ride.

You’re getting a quote for a Flintstone sedan, while being promised delivery of an F-35.

They are luring you into a dirty little deal, knowing full well it will fail, just to get their paws on your initial deposit.

Here’s the unadulterated truth they are terrified to tell you:

A truly disruptive, enterprise-grade platform (the kind that creates new categories and generates obscene multi-generational wealth) is not a $50k project. It’s a seven-figure endeavor. Minimum.

And that’s not bad news. It’s a healthy signal.

Venture capital and angels aren’t trawling the earth for bargin-bin ideas (or poorly formed ones).

They are hunting for the next damn unicorns.

Unlike what Hollywood portrays, unicorns are not built on the cheap.

A properly architected, seven-figure project is a sign of a massive opportunity.

It shows ambition matched with the guts to pay the actual price for greatness.

It shows a deep understanding of the problem.

A high price tag, backed by a bulletproof plan, is precisely what makes an idea attractive to the big leagues.

Software is the most lucrative and exciting game today, but it is not all sunshine and roses.

Venture cap is bombarded all day long with hundreds, in some cases thousands of founders with promises that their idea is going to “go viral”, “everybody will want this”, “make us all rich” – but there’s no substance when you look under the hood.

The real difference between the winners who get funded and the losers who burn through their savings is this:

The winners understand the real cost, embrace it, and build an institutional-grade plan that leverages every single dollar.

That plan is what they use to get funded.  And not just the MVP scrappy plan, the actual plan.

The 10 year vision.  The 20 year vision.

If the idea is obvious, cheap and easy — nobody needs it or it’s been done before. 

You can be the genesis of a Cambrian explosion or the plankton that gets fed upon en masse.

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The blue ocean question.

This is where we pivot the assessment from TECHNICAL ENGINEERING to BUSINESS MODELING.

Remember – you are building software, but really, you’re building a business.

Where there is gold, there you will find dragons.

And sometimes, you can find gold where there are no dragons.

Which one is an easier game to win?

You need to create a new category.

You need to sell in a vacuum.

Stop trying to compete, become the champion in a new weight category.

You need to be the 1 of 0.

How? You need to solve a real problem by redefining the accepted solution.

Tinder didn’t make a better dating website.

Uber didn’t make a better taxi.

Spotify didn’t make a better record store.

DoorDash didn’t make a better pizza delivery service.

Airbnb didn’t make a better hotel.

YouTube didn’t make a better TV channel.

The legends you admire – – Edison, the Wright Brothers, Jobs, – – were obsessive problem solvers who saw the problem through a new perspective and redefined light, travel and technology. In our session, we examine the soundness of your idea from the lens of profitability. We are here to see if the idea has solid business legs to stand on and a bright future for years to come.

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And here’s our process.

We are approached by over twenty-thousand founders every year.

There isn’t enough time in the day to go through and talk with everyone… nor do we want to.

99% of them are wasting their time on ideas that are technically impossible, uninteresting to the market or fundamentally flawed from a business model vantage point.

The Technical Viability Assessment is the first gate every founder we work with passes through.

When you fill out our inquiry, check the box that says you want to go through the Technical Viability Assessment.

You’ll send us your idea in a sentence or two and we’ll run it through our acceptance thesis.

We’ll meet with you together and put together a clear logical argument for you, with the entire big picture in consideration.  You’ll walk away knowing:

> What you need to look out for.

> Where the opportunity is (and isn’t).

> What we believe would make this idea worth $50M+ in the next 5 years.

> What your logical next steps look like.

Speaking of logical next steps…

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Here is your logical next step.

If you’re serious about your idea (serious enough to see if it can survive an expert, honest assessment) then you might be a fit for the TVA.

If that’s you, apply for a session.