← Back to Greenlight
Validate / Step 01 / $29 / Same day

Is the market there, and are you the founder to serve it?

Two questions, answered the same day, before you build anything. A structured Market Scan reads whether the demand is real. A Founder-Market Fit read shows how you line up with the idea.

Question one
Is the market there?
A same-day desk analysis of demand, timing, and distribution - each component rated plainly, with the evidence behind it.
Question two
Are you the founder to serve it?
A per-dimension read on how your background, domain knowledge, and customer access line up with the idea.
Run a Reality Check
Question one · Market Scan

Is the market actually there?

A same-day desk analysis, AI-run, that reads market viability the right way. Each component is rated plainly - favorable, mixed, or hostile - with the evidence behind it.

Read 01
Competitive landscape, read correctly
Not "how crowded is it," but what customers already pay for - and what that says about how badly the problem is felt.
FavorableMixedHostile
Read 02
Timing and trend direction
Is the ground moving toward this idea or away from it? Search demand, category momentum, and what changed recently.
FavorableMixedHostile
Read 03
Distribution reality
Who controls access to this customer, and can you actually reach them - or does someone else own the gate?
FavorableMixedHostile

Illustrative ratings. Your scan rates each read on your idea's actual evidence.

The Market Scan is context, not a verdict. It tells you whether the conditions are favorable before you spend a week testing your solution against real strangers.

Question two · Founder-Market Fit

Are you the founder to serve it?

A per-dimension read on how your background, domain knowledge, and customer access line up with the idea. Five dimensions, each an observation and a practical implication. Hover to see what each one asks.

Domain proximityHow close your background is to this problem and this customer. Execution capabilityWhether your experience suggests you can ship and run this product. Channel & audience accessWhether you already have a path to your customers, or need to build one. Founder-customer empathyEvidence you understand how they think and what they actually need. Realistic execution riskWhere you are most likely to struggle, and how to plan around it.

If your fit looks thin on a dimension, the read tells you exactly where and what would close it - it never invents a different idea for you. A strong background does not rescue a hostile market, and a thin one does not disqualify a real opportunity. You get both reads, clearly separated.

The frameworks behind the read

The same logic investors already use.

Founder-market fit is not our invention. It is how founding teams get evaluated before there is any product. We apply it for you, not against you.

2011
Chris Dixon
Named founder-market fit as a leading indicator of reaching product-market fit: who is building matters nearly as much as what the market says.
4
NfX signals
NfX operationalized it into four observable signals: domain obsession, founder story, personality, and relevant experience.
~30%
Bill Payne Scorecard
The standard pre-revenue valuation tool weights the founding team at roughly 30% of total valuation - more than any other single factor.
What Reality Check is not

It tells you whether the market is there and whether you fit it. It does not tell you whether your idea works.

Only real strangers do that, in Market Validation. Reality Check is the honest first look - same-day, AI-run, only $29 - before you validate or commit 6 months of your life, to finding out.

Run a Reality Check