1. Before even you start interviewing - search on tech sites such as Techcurnch, GigaOM or Hacker News (this site). What you need to see is how many companie

1. Before even you start interviewing - search on tech sites such as Techcurnch, GigaOM or Hacker News (this site). What you need to see is how many companies if any have been mentioned in the same space doing similar things. If you find some, it means you are already 2-3 years behind in the game. Then the key question is how you can differentiate? 2. It is not only about how may people you can interview. Sometimes you may be able to interview the segment you want but they might not understand if the product or service you are going to offer is going to be a game changer. For example, I was chatting with a friend in 2005 about how people were using a PC because we were looking buy some PC related stocks. Our observation was that most of the people are using them to browse the web. Netbooks were not there yet and there were no signs of iPhone and the iPad. If you were to interview consumer at that point or even tried fundraising from VCs, they were pretty happy with the PC they had and there was no need for an iPad. But if you look today - iPad is what everyone wants to buy today. Similarly Facebook and Instagram or Facebook and Snapchat. What Instagram did or Snapchat is doing - was/is already being done on the Facebook except the differentiators weren't there. 3. While the market research is a must, your idea shall not completely depend on it. Instead the focus should be on what problem your trying to solve and the market for it - e.g. for iPad it was a need for small and portable device that can be used to browse web and manage daily digital activities. For Snapchat - teenagers wish to keep their affairs separate than their parents since Facebook let everyone in. 4. Startups are about creating new markets the data you may not be able to find from the research companies or the government databases. In my humble opinion, most of the research companies look into the rearview mirror to determine the road ahead.