An entrepreneur recently asked me: How long should it take to find a startup idea?”

Great question—and the answer is: it depends.

Here are a few things I have learned through our Studio process where we research ideas and start businesses from scratch.

You Can’t Rush It

The number one mistake I see entrepreneurs make is they rush through customer discovery and start building too soon. It takes time to find and deeply understand a must-have problem for a specific target customer segment where you have unique insights. There are almost always many iterations on the problem and idea required before you get to the one you believe in and want to spend the next ten years of your life solving. You must give yourself enough time to make as many of those early iterations as possible.

Your Level of Time Commitment

Some entrepreneurs are committed to starting something and are exploring full time; others are working a current job and dabbling on the side. Some entrepreneurs already know the space they are passionate about and are laser focused on problems in that space; others are still trying to figure out what area they want to build in. Naturally the more focused and full time, the faster you can move.

There is Likely a Time to Commit

Every idea will have risks.

… and you eventually have to try something.

Some entrepreneurs will always find a reason why something might not work. But at some point you have to feel the opportunity to solve the problem and believe the path to do so is worth the risk. 

In our Studio, some entrepreneurs have found the idea within the first month or two of exploring; others have taken several months or even longer if exploring on the side.

As a general rule, six months of full-time exploration is usually enough.

If after six months you still are not convinced on an idea to go after, it may be time to step back and try something else.

What’s your biggest challenge in idea validation right now? Drop a comment or hit reply.