Build or Skip

Build or Skip attacks the most expensive mistake in indie product development: spending months building something nobody wants. Instead of surveys and gut feel, it looks for products already showing order momentum — estimated monthly orders, growth signals and repeat purchase activity — so you can see whether real customers are already paying for something adjacent to your idea before you write a line of code. The logic is sound: existing sales are the strongest validation signal there is, and finding a market with proven demand but beatable incumbents is a much better starting position than a blank-sheet 'original' idea. The output is essentially a ranked view of opportunities with traction signals attached, which makes it useful both for validating a specific idea and for prospecting for one. The honest limitations: order estimates are estimates, not audited figures, so treat the numbers as directional rather than precise; and demand validation says nothing about whether you specifically can reach those customers, which is where most validated ideas still die. For indie hackers, solo founders and serial builders who generate more ideas than they can build, it is a sensible filter to run before committing weekends to the next project.