5 Quick Tips from The Mom Test

1. Don’t ask if your idea is good. Ask about the person’s life.
2. Avoid compliments and vague answers. Push for specifics.
3. Talk less about your solution, listen more about their problems.
4. Look for evidence of real behavior, not just opinions.
5. A good conversation should end with a clear next step.

One of the biggest mistakes founders make is asking the wrong questions when testing their startup ideas. Rob Fitzpatrick, in his book The Mom Test, explains how most entrepreneurs fall into the trap of asking for compliments instead of truth. If you ask your mom whether your idea is good, she’ll probably say yes just to be supportive. But the same thing happens with friends, colleagues, and even strangers, that people want to be nice, not honest.

Fitzpatrick’s advice is simple: stop asking if your idea is good. Instead, ask about people’s lives, habits, and problems. Don’t talk about your solution, just dig into their experiences. For example, instead of saying “Would you use an app that tracks your workouts?” you should ask “How do you currently track your workouts?” That way, you’ll get real insight into what people actually do, not polite opinions.

He also emphasizes that you need to avoid fishing for validation. When you hear “That sounds cool” or “I’d probably use it,” it feels good, but it’s useless. What you want is specific, concrete information about what people already do, what problems frustrate them, and whether they’ve tried to solve those problems before.

Another key point is to focus on commitments and actions. If someone says they like your idea, ask them to pre-order, sign up, or introduce you to a colleague. If they aren’t willing to take a small step, their words don’t mean much. As Fitzpatrick puts it, “The measure of usefulness of an early customer conversation is whether it leads to a clear next step.”

The book isn’t just about avoiding bad feedback, it’s about learning how to uncover the truth that actually moves your startup forward. By asking smarter questions, you’ll save time, money, and energy building things nobody wants.

So the real test isn’t whether your mom thinks your idea is good. The real test is whether you can have honest conversations that reveal if your idea solves a real problem.

Cited from: Rob Fitzpatrick, “The Mom Test”

Pitch Deck Builders that founders, startups, and creators use to build stunning and effective pitch decks:

1. Beautiful.ai
   AI-powered presentation builder designed for pitch decks and investor-ready slides.

2. Tome
   Modern storytelling format with AI, visuals, and live integrations, which are great for startup decks.

3. Canva
   Easy-to-use drag-and-drop deck builder with tons of templates for startups and businesses.

4. Pitch
   Collaborative presentation software made for startups and teams, which is sleek and fast.

5. Visme
   Visual content creator with specific pitch deck tools, charts, infographics, and templates.

6. Slidebean
   Popular among startups, and it automatically designs your slides based on content. Also offers fundraising support.

7. Decktopus
   A no-fuss, guided pitch deck builder with interactive elements and smart content suggestions.

8. Kroma
   AI-powered visual tool with investor deck templates, charts, and creative assets.

9. Storydoc
   Creates interactive and scroll-based decks instead of static slides — ideal for wow factor.

10. Prezi
    Known for its dynamic, zoomable presentation style. Great if you want something non-linear and eye-catching.

Top 10 Notion Alternatives, especially useful for productivity, docs, project management, or wikis:

1. Coda
   Combines documents, spreadsheets, and apps into one powerful workspace — great for teams and makers.

2. ClickUp
   Project management meets docs, tasks, and goals. Very customizable, ideal for agile teams.

3. Airtable
   A spreadsheet-database hybrid for managing workflows, with strong collaboration and templates.

4. Tana
   New-generation knowledge management tool with AI-powered workflows and structured notes.

5. Obsidian
   Local-first, markdown-based knowledge base. Loved by developers, writers, and researchers.

6. Craft
   Beautiful docs and notes, especially for Apple users. Great for presentations and collaboration.

7. Slite
   A clean, team-friendly documentation tool focused on async communication and wikis.

8. Nuclino
   Lightweight alternative to Notion for real-time team docs and knowledge bases.

9. Evernote
   A classic note-taking app with web clipping, tasks, and notebooks, which is still going strong.

10. Microsoft OneNote
    Part of the Microsoft 365 suite, it is great for hierarchical note-taking and cross-device sync.

Explore these platforms for publishing newsletters, growing communities, or monetizing content:

1. Beehiiv
   Built by ex-Morning Brew team. Offers powerful audience segmentation, referral system, and monetization tools.

2. ConvertKit
   Email marketing for creators with automation, paid newsletters, and landing pages.

3. Ghost
   Open-source and fully customizable. Great for paid memberships, blogs, and newsletters.

4. Revue (Discontinued)
   Twitter-owned platform shut down in early 2023, but still worth mentioning historically, as many migrated from here to Substack or Ghost.

5. Medium
   Focused on writing built-in distribution. Less control over branding but high discoverability.

6. MailerLite
   Budget-friendly email marketing tool with landing pages, automations, and subscriber management.

7. Buttondown
   Lightweight, minimal, and perfect for indie creators or devs who want clean newsletters.

8. Kajabi
   All-in-one platform for creators selling content—emails, courses, memberships.

9. SendFox
   Budget-friendly newsletter tool from AppSumo, great for creators and small businesses.

10. Patreon
    While not a direct email tool, many creators pair Patreon with email tools (like Mailchimp) for monetized content delivery.

What is your key ingredient?

A Great Product Without Customers is Just a Great Idea

A lot of founders believe, “If I build a great product, people will automatically come.” Nope. Doesn’t work like that. You can have the most innovative, game-changing product, but if no one knows about it, it’s useless.

Many startups fail not because their product wasn’t good—but because they didn’t focus enough on marketing and sales. Customers won’t magically appear. You have to go get them.

How This Mistake Happens:

• Thinking marketing is optional. “Our product is so good, it will sell itself!” (No, it won’t.)
• Not having a marketing strategy. Just posting on Instagram once in a while isn’t a plan.
• Focusing only on product development. You build, tweak, and improve—but forget to tell people why they need it.
• Underestimating the power of sales. Even the best product needs someone actively selling it.

How to Avoid This Mistake?

• Start marketing early. Don’t wait until launch—start building buzz while you're developing.
• Identify your target audience. Who are your ideal customers, and where do they hang out?
• Have a clear sales strategy. Whether it’s inbound marketing, paid ads, or direct outreach, know how you’ll get customers.
• Use multiple marketing channels. Social media, SEO, email marketing, partnerships—mix it up.

A startup without marketing is like throwing a party without sending invites. No one’s showing up unless you put the word out. 🚀

If You Think You Have No Competitors, You Haven’t Looked Hard Enough

A classic mistake startup founders make? Believing they’re the only ones solving a problem. They proudly say, “We have no competitors!”—but that’s almost never true.

Even if no one is doing exactly what you’re doing, people are already finding ways to solve the problem you’re targeting—maybe in a different way. Your real competition isn’t just direct rivals; it’s also alternatives, habits, or even the “do-nothing” option where customers stick with what they already have.

How This Mistake Happens:

• You assume your idea is 100% unique. But a quick Google search might tell a different story.
• You only look at direct competitors. The real threat might be substitutes or existing customer habits.
• You ignore indirect competition. If you’re launching a new video call app, you’re competing with Zoom, but also with WhatsApp, FaceTime, and even Slack.
• You don’t analyze why competitors succeed (or fail). Learning from them could save you a lot of mistakes.

How to Avoid This Mistake?

• Do deep competitor research. Look beyond obvious rivals and analyze indirect alternatives.
• Ask potential users what they’re already using. Their current solution is your biggest competition.
• Differentiate smartly. If you can’t be the first, be the best, the fastest, the easiest, or the most affordable.
• Learn from competitors. See what works, what doesn’t, and what gaps you can fill.

Bottom line? If no one else is solving the problem, maybe it’s not a real problem. Competition isn’t a bad thing. It proves there’s a market. 🚀

A Strong Team is as Important as a Great Idea

Many founders start out thinking, “I’ll handle everything myself”—and that’s where things start to fall apart. Sure, in the early days, you might be the CEO, marketer, sales rep, developer, and customer support all in one. But trying to do everything forever is a recipe for burnout and failure.

How This Mistake Happens:

• You don’t trust anyone else to do it “right.” So you micromanage or refuse to delegate.
• You think hiring is a waste of money. “I’ll just do it myself and save costs.” But in reality, you slow everything down.
• You spread yourself too thin. You’re jumping from task to task, never fully focusing on the big picture.
• You delay building a solid team. And when things get overwhelming, it’s already too late.

How to Avoid This Mistake?

• Find co-founders or key team members early. A great team will push your startup further than you ever could alone.
• Learn to delegate. Free yourself up for strategic thinking instead of getting stuck in daily tasks.
• Hire for your weaknesses. If you’re a tech genius but suck at sales, get a strong sales partner.
• Trust your team. Micromanaging slows everything down. Let people do their jobs.

Startups aren’t solo missions—they’re team efforts. Build a dream team, not a one-man show. 🚀

Your Users Should Shape Your Product, Not Just Your Assumptions

One of the biggest mistakes founders make? Building in a bubble. You come up with an idea, spend months perfecting it, and proudly launch it—only to realize... no one cares.

Why? Because you never asked your potential users what they actually want.

How This Mistake Happens:

• You assume you already know what people need. (Spoiler: You probably don’t.)
• You build an entire product before testing. No early prototypes, no beta testers—just a full-fledged launch into the unknown.
• You ignore feedback because “you know better.” Bad move. The best products evolve based on real user input.
• You add unnecessary features. Cool, but do they solve a real problem?

How to Avoid This Mistake?

• Talk to users from Day 1. Ask questions, listen, and learn before writing a single line of code.
• Launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). A simple version of your product is enough to get feedback.
• Be obsessed with customer feedback. Every complaint, suggestion, or frustration is a chance to improve.
• Adapt quickly. If your users don’t like something, change it fast.

Your startup exists to solve a problem for people, not to prove your idea is genius. Build for them, not for yourself. 🚀

Burning Cash Without a Plan is a One-Way Ticket to Failure

Money is like fuel for a startup- run out of it, and you’re stuck. But a lot of founders spend like they’ve already made it big, only to realize too late that they should’ve been smarter with their cash.

The mistakes founders usually make:

• Spending too much, too soon – Fancy offices, big teams, aggressive marketing—without solid revenue, it’s just a ticking time bomb.
• Ignoring financial planning – No proper budgeting, no runway calculation, just vibes and optimism.
• Relying only on funding – Thinking “we’ll raise more money later” instead of figuring out how to make money first.
• Not tracking expenses – Small unnecessary costs pile up until one day, boom! The bank balance says zero.

How to Avoid This Mistake?

• Track every rupee – Know exactly where your money is going.
• Spend wisely – Invest in what truly moves the needle, not just what looks good.
• Plan your runway – Always know how many months of survival you have left.
• Find revenue early – Don’t depend on investors alone; aim for profitability.

Startups don’t die from lack of ideas, they die from lack of cash flow management. Be smart, or be broke. 🚀

Growing too soon without a solid base can break everything.

A lot of startup founders think bigger = better, but scaling too early can be a total disaster. Imagine trying to build a skyscraper on a weak foundation - it's only a matter of time before it all comes crashing down.

Here’s how this mistake usually plays out:

• You get some early success, and instead of refining your product, you hire too many people, expand to new markets, or burn cash on fancy offices.
• You assume more customers = more revenue, but your systems, customer support, or product can’t handle the growth.
• You run out of money too soon because you scaled before achieving profitability or product-market fit.

How to Avoid This Mistake?

• Focus on sustainable growth, not just fast growth. More users won’t help if they don’t stick around.
• Make sure your product, team, and operations can handle the next level before you scale.
• Test small before going big. Expand in stages, analyze the impact, and fix issues before scaling further.

Scaling should be a natural step, not a forced one. Growing at the right pace is better than crashing fast. 🚀

Just Because You Think It’s Cool Doesn’t Mean People Will Pay for It

A lot of startup founders fall into the "build first, ask later" trap. They come up with what they believe is a game-changing idea, spend months (or even years) building it, and then - boom! Crickets. No one’s interested.

Why? Because they skipped market research, the part where you check if people actually need what you’re making. Just because you think your idea is cool doesn’t mean others will open their wallets for it.

Common mistakes include:

• Assuming everyone wants your product, without testing it on real users.
• Thinking "there's no competition" (spoiler: there always is).
• Misjudging the demand, just because people say they like an idea doesn’t mean they’ll pay for it.

How to Avoid This Mistake?

• Talk to potential users first, and not just your friends, because they’ll be too nice.
• Check existing solutions, if nobody is solving this problem, maybe it’s not a big problem.
• Run small tests, build a prototype, launch a landing page, or do pre-orders before going all in.

The bottom line? Don’t guess. Validate. Your gut feeling is great, but solid data is better. 🚀

Build what people need, not just what you love.

One of the biggest mistakes startup founders make is getting too attached to their idea instead of focusing on the real problem they’re solving. It’s easy to think, “This is such a cool product! Everyone will love it!”—but will they really?

Here’s the reality: customers don’t care about how unique or fancy your idea is. They care about whether it solves a problem for them—preferably one that’s annoying, time-consuming, or costly.

Many founders build something they think people want, spend months (or years) perfecting it, only to realize no one actually needs it. They get so invested in their idea that they ignore feedback, dismiss negative responses, and keep tweaking features instead of asking the tough question: “Is this even useful?”

A smarter approach? Start with the problem first. Find a pain point, understand how people are currently dealing with it, and then build a solution that makes their life easier. Be ready to tweak, pivot, or even scrap your original idea if it turns out the problem isn’t as big as you thought.

TL;DR: Love the problem, not your idea. Ideas change. Problems stay.