Coming up with an idea is the easy part. Executing is what's hard. That's why many aspiring founders stall out in the initial phase of starting a company. They don't know how to make progress towards their idea, and they lose momentum.

I've vetted dozens of start-up ideas and finally chose one to pursue. With this idea, I left Spotify to launch a start-up. Since launching, I've been fortunate to raise millions of dollars and find promising early traction.

Many aspiring founders don't know what steps to take in the early days. So I've put together three simple action items for folks that have an idea but don't know how to take the first step. I'm not claiming to be a start-up expert -- this is just what worked well for me.

Ok. First, in my opinion, the only thing you should do is TALK to a bunch of potential customers. At least 20, ideally 50+. When we first started Slang.ai, we spoke to closer to ~100 potential customers.

Through this process you should:

• Learn about the customer

• Learn about the problem

• Validate demand

Here are three concrete ways to do this.

Step #1. Read "The Mom Test."

The mom test is a fantastic tactical guide. It explains how to interview potential customers to get the right insights. It's a must-read for first-time founders. http://momtestbook.com/

Step #2. Interview at least 20 potential customers.

Interview people that actually represent your target customer. Don't interview friends if you can avoid it. Don't be afraid to do cold outreach LinkedIn. Take good notes and record sessions/calls if you can.

If you feel like your initial hypotheses were correct after talking to 20, keep going. Try to get to 50 or more interviews. Best efforts. This can be really hard if your target customer is hard to access.

If many of your assumptions were wrong, or if you uncover something that would completely change your idea, take a break to internalize this info and tweak your hypotheses before interviewing more people.

Step #3. Analyze the Data

What did you learn about the customer / problem? What themes came up in several (5+) conversations? Where did folks get most emotional (e.g. happy or frustrated)? Try to separate signal from noise.

After talking to at least 20 potential customers and analyzing the data, you'll have an intuitive sense of how strong your idea is. In addition, you'll certainly generate even more questions that you'll have to answer if you want to move forward with your idea.

TLDR:

Talk to customers to:

• Learn about the customer

• Learn about the problem

• Validate demand

Three steps to get started:

• Read "The Mom Test"

• Talk to at least 20+ customers

• Analyze the data