I am suspicious of any tool that takes a business idea, spits out a number and acts like it just predicted the future.
Business does not work like that.
I have had ideas that looked great on paper and went nowhere. I have also had businesses work well enough to generate real money without looking like some perfect startup case study.
So when I built Marketur Reality Check, I did not want the score to mean “this business will succeed.” Nobody can honestly promise that.
I wanted the number to force a messy question into smaller questions that could actually be researched.
A Reality Score is not a prediction
The score is a structured way to look at the evidence around an idea.
Is there demand? Who already solves the problem? Can the economics make sense? How dependent is the business on platforms you do not control? Can you realistically reach customers? What has actually been proven and what are you still guessing about?
An idea can look strong in one area and be a disaster in another.
That matters because an average can hide the thing that kills you.
Platform dependence deserves more weight than I used to give it
I learned this one by actually building.
I have dealt with Apple App Store rules changing what I could put into an app. I have dealt with Sign in with Apple requirements. I have used WebToNative. I have built with Lovable and watched platform credits become part of the economics. I have moved projects back toward WordPress because ownership and control started mattering more to me.
Those experiences changed the way I look at a business idea.
If your whole company works only while one platform, API, marketplace or algorithm keeps saying yes, that is part of the risk whether the product itself is brilliant or not.
Demand is stronger when people do something
I do not want a score inflated because people say an idea sounds cool.
I have seen traffic without conversions. I have seen community activity that did not automatically become a business. I have seen free interest disappear when payment was required.
Behavior matters more.
Searches, purchases, existing spending, repeat complaints, deposits, paid pilots and renewals tell you more than likes and encouragement.
That does not mean soft signals are useless. They just should not weigh the same.
Competition can improve the score
This sounds backwards when you are new.
A competitor is evidence that somebody thought the problem was worth solving. Paying customers are even better evidence.
The question is whether there is room for you.
If customers hate the existing options, there may be a wedge. If the market is crowded with happy customers and your pitch is basically “same thing but mine is cooler,” I want the score to punish that optimism.
The number matters less than what dragged it down
This is probably the most important part.
If Reality Check gives an idea a mediocre score, I do not think the useful response is “damn, AI says no.”
I want to know why.
Maybe demand looks good but customer acquisition looks brutal. Maybe competition is manageable but the business depends on an API that can wipe it out. Maybe the economics work but there is no evidence anyone wants this exact offer.
Those weaknesses become a research list.
That is much more useful than a green checkmark.
I built the tool because AI can make me too productive
AI made it incredibly easy for me to go from idea to project.
That sounds like a pure advantage until you realize it also lets you make expensive mistakes faster.
I can generate the copy, design the page, write code, build plugins and connect systems much faster than I could a few years ago. I can also burn through money and time building something before I have forced myself to answer whether I should.
That is the real reason Reality Check exists.
I needed something that would argue with me before the builder side of my brain took over.
A high score is not permission to get stupid
If an idea scores well, you still have to test it.
You still have to talk to customers. You still have to get somebody to pay. You still have to figure out distribution. You still have to execute.
A high score means the evidence found so far gives you reasons to keep testing.
That is it.
Likewise, a low score does not mean the idea can never work. It tells you which assumptions need stronger evidence or a different approach.
Use the score as a map
I have gotten really fucking good at failing because I have built a lot of things.
The upside is that every failure left something behind. Skills, contacts, caution, experience and a much lower tolerance for pretending enthusiasm is evidence.
If you have an idea, run the free Marketur Reality Check. Do not obsess over the final number. Read the reasons behind it.
Then attack the weakest assumption before you build the expensive version.
That is what the score is for.
If you are at the beginning, start with how to validate a business idea before spending money. The SBA guide to market research and competitive analysis is also useful for doing the underlying research yourself.