I had what I thought was a solid idea: a certification body that validates companies’ internal culture and practices for facing upcoming tech/IT challenges. Think “Great Place to Work” but focused on tech-readiness. I’m a developer/cloud engineer and I built an AI skill called startup-design that walks you through structured startup validation, 8 phases from initial brainstorming to financial projections. I ran my own idea through it. The skill hit me with hard questions during the early phase:
- You’re a cloud engineer. Outside of tech, zero background in HR, consulting, or certifications. Why would any company buy a quality stamp from you?
- €5k budget, solo side project. How do you build credibility for a certification brand from scratch? Certifications live and die on reputation.
- Great Place to Work, B Corp, Top Employer, Investors in People already exist. What’s your strongest argument against your own idea?
- Have you actually talked to HR managers or CEOs to see if they’d buy this? What did they say? Honest answers: I don’t have what it takes for THIS idea. Not the skills, not the career background, not the network, not the budget. The idea isn’t impossible, I’m just not the right founder for it. The takeaway: Killing a bad idea early is the best possible outcome. It’s months of wasted effort you’ll never have to spend. The skill did exactly what I designed it to do — force brutal honesty before you fall in love with an idea. It’s open source if anyone wants to try it: github.com/ferdinandobons/startup-skill Kill your weak ideas fast. The strong ones will survive. submitted by /u/ferdbons
Originally posted by u/ferdbons on r/ClaudeCode
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