We first spoke to prospective users about germ.io and everyone "felt" the problem (managing ideas and building on them till they get to execution) - but they thought it was too big a problem to be solved through software. But at that point we were only looking to see if the problem we were trying to solve was real - not fit our solution in.

Once you know you're solving a problem that exists, you can't figure out fit by just talking to people - you need to throw out a (crappy) version and let real people play. We don't have the time/ $$s to spend months and THEN know we don't have a fit. So decided to roll out an MDP in pre-beta cycles called "Omega's" (story: blog.germ.io/wtfs-an-omega/). In the last week, we've had over 800 signups and 200 users we've opened access to, so I guess the challenge is to build -> ship -> iterate.

The family and friends you talk to before you have a prototype are the people who'd tell you they think your stuff is cool, but would never take their wallets out if they weren't doing you a personal favor. Their word and opinion isn't really worth much.