Don’t Start a Business Until You’ve Done This First ⏐ Ep. #211

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I walk you through exactly how I validate an online business idea before I ever launch it, using real data from places that actually matter. I use GummySearch, Reddit, and review sites like Captera, G2, GetApp, and TrustRadius to pull the true pain points and must haves for QuickBooks and Xero, then I run the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Manus to cluster the findings. The big three complaints are unreliable bank feeds, constant pricing increases, and poor customer support, while the must haves are clean invoicing, simple reconciliation, and easy cloud access with multi user collaboration. To show how fast you can move, I spin up a Carrd landing page on LazyBooks.com, wire it to Beehive for email capture, and put a simple message out for small businesses that hate bookkeeping. If you want a simpler tool built for businesses with zero to ten employees, join the LazyBooks waitlist below.

Try PickFu and get 50% off your first poll with code TKOPOD at https://www.pickfu.com/#_r_tkopod

30% off for three months with code CHRIS30 at checkout - https://www.beehiiv.com/chris

https://try.carrd.co/fs12zhlc

https://gummysearch.com/?via=chris-koerner

Enjoy!

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PROMPT: Your job is to act like a research assistant with agentic browsing and scraping powers. I want you to investigate public review sites (Capterra, G2, GetApp, TrustRadius, and similar) and extract real user pain points and “can’t-live-without” features for QuickBooks (Online + Desktop) and Xero.Steps:1. Scrape reviews across multiple platforms (Capterra, G2, GetApp, TrustRadius, Reddit, app store reviews if available).2. Collect at least 200+ recent reviews (past 2 years).3. Parse and cluster feedback into two categories: - *Pain points* (things users hate, churn reasons, frustrations, broken features, cost complaints). - *Must-haves* (the specific features or outcomes users rave about and would never give up).4. For each cluster, include: - Direct sample quotes from real users (keep them short). - Frequency (# of times it appeared across reviews). - Sentiment strength (light annoyance → dealbreaker).5. Summarize into a ranked list: - Top 10 pain points across both platforms. - Top 10 must-have features across both platforms.6. Call out any hidden gems — recurring insights from smaller groups that big competitors might be missing (ex: bank-feed stability, reconciliations, multi-currency, customer support).7. Deliver a final “opportunity map” — 3–5 areas where a slimmed-down competitor could wedge in, based on high-frustration/low-satisfaction pain points paired with still-high demand for core features.Output format:- Clear tables (Pain Points, Must-Haves).- Ranked lists with numbers.- A concise final summary with the best 3–5 wedge opportunities.Make sure all insights are backed with real review data, not generic summaries.At the end of your report give me your unfiltered unbiased take on whether or not I should start this business. Be brutally honest for me, and assume I have a 10x developer on my team, because I do.