The First Founder Intent Index

The First Founder Intent Index

Author

Aron Meystedt
March 17, 2026

In partnership with

Hello, Aron here with ValidatorAI.com.
We analyzed the past 7-days of startup idea validation behavior. Here’s what we found. Plus, at the bottom of this email, more AI tools to help you explore ideas.

Who Users Actually Are

Explorers             ████████████████████
Builders              ██████████

A good percentage are analyzed as being “builders” while most are “explorers”.

What Problems People Choose

Operational           ██████████████████
Aspirational          ████████████
Lifestyle             ████

55% real operational problems. 35% vague / undefined.

More people are tackling real problems and leaning less on the dream of being a founder (than we’ve seen in previous periods).

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Idea Quality

Average score: 78

All Ideas             ████████████████████
Top Tier (85+)        ███████

Does Idea Quality Drive Action?

(idea score vs builder behavior)

Below 70 Score             ███████████ 
70–80 Score                █████████████ 
80–90 Score                ████████████

Action is not driven by idea quality alone. People more forward and build at a similar rate regardless of idea score.

How Deep People Go

1 Tool                ██████████████████
2 Tools               ██████████
3+ Tools              ████

Repeat Behavior

One-Time Users        ███████████████ 
Repeat Users          ████████

  • Repeat behavior is uneven across segments

  • Stronger in certain geographies

Do People Change Ideas?

Stayed Same Idea      ████████████████████ 
Changed Ideas         ████

Stated Next Steps

(results of 1000+ exit survey participants this week)

Start Building        ████████████████████
Research More         ██████████████████
Adjust Idea           ████████
Talk to Others        ███
Take a Break          █

Users show strong intent toward building and further research.

  • Many users move into deeper evaluation phases

  • Multiple paths emerge after validation

Category Conversion

Higher Conversion:
AI / Tech            ███████████
Manufacturing        ██████████
E-commerce           █████████

Lower Conversion:
SaaS                 ████
Platforms            ████


More tangible ideas convert to building. Highly abstract categories see more exploration.

Where Action Happens (Global)

(builder behavior by country)


India                ████████████ 
Canada               ███████████████ 
Brazil               █████████████████ 
Philippines          █████████████████ 
United States / UK   ███████████ 
Germany              ██████████

Action is higher outside US/UK. Western markets skew more exploratory.

Where Users Come Back

(percentage of users that return, by country)

Australia            ███████████████ 
Canada               ████████████ 
United States / UK   ████████ 
India                ███ 
Brazil               ███████████ 
Germany              ████

Some regions explore once, while others show deeper engagement.

  • AI/Tech is the most common idea category, trending up

  • Technology, consulting, finance, food, retail lead overall

Newsletter Behavior

  • 69% of readers open multiple emails in a row

  • 10% reopen emails after 24 hours

This is a habit-forming audience

Validate with us. Build your landing page at Base44.

Drop this prompt into Base44 and mockup your idea for FREE!

“I’m building [describe your idea] for [specific customer] who struggle with [specific problem]. Please build me a modern landing page. My goal is to validate demand by collecting emails and pre-orders.”

More AI Tools for Exploration! (All Free)

We created a full suite of tools to help explore your ideas: AI Startup Idea Tools


We can help you:



And more! We’re adding new tools daily 🙂 

If you are completely stuck, generate a new idea and test it, safely:


👉 Generate a new concept with the Business Idea Generator
👉 Validate your idea with our Startup Idea Validation Tool


Remember, you are valuable - your personality, skills and the way you see things are uniquely yours. It’s pretty epic.

Aron Meystedt

Chief Data Nerd at ValidatorAI.com

👬 Let’s connect on LinkedIn!

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This newsletter may contain paid promotions. I never recommend a company or service that I wouldn’t use myself. In fact, I decline 9 out of 10 ads that come my way.

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