If you don't have the network, you have to build it. There's no real way around that. If you want to start a business and need to stress test your idea like this, you'll need to do outreach. Whether that's cold outreach or attending events or joining the right groups and communities, it's all about the legwork.

But the point is you can still do that on your own time without making huge sacrifices. Taking the concept of "go out and talk to people" too literally just serves to prevent you from actually finding and reaching your ideal audience.

Need to know where to start? Angel List, LinkedIn, Meetup, and the like. Write some cold emails. You can always build a network, and you should if you want to start a business.