Free tool · Evidence, not opinions
AI gave you a startup idea. Does the evidence support it?
Paste an idea from ChatGPT, Claude or another AI. Problem Signal checks it against real discussions, recurring problems, workarounds and product requests. AI is useful for brainstorming — but a plausible idea is still a hypothesis.
Why plausible ideas still need evidence
An AI assistant predicts a plausible-sounding product. It doesn't check whether real people are already describing the problem, working around it, or asking for a solution. Problem Signal does exactly that — separating the problem you're assuming from the solution you're proposing, and showing where real discussions agree or disagree.
What Problem Signal checks
- 1.We interpret the idea: the proposed buyer, problem, workflow and solution — kept separate, so the solution is never treated as proof the problem exists.
- 2.If the buyer is too broad, we ask one focused question so we check a single, specific customer.
- 3.We search real public discussions for that problem and buyer, and count distinct people and distinct discussions — never inflating with repeats.
- 4.You get an evidence verdict, what matches, what the evidence doesn't yet support, and one concrete next validation step. Every quote links back to its source.
Frequently asked questions
- Can ChatGPT validate a startup idea?
AI is great for brainstorming, but a plausible idea it generates is still a hypothesis. It can't tell you whether real people already experience the problem — it wasn't checking evidence, it was predicting text. This tool takes the idea you already generated and checks it against real public discussions to see whether the problem shows up in practice.
- What evidence does Problem Signal check?
We search a corpus of real public community discussions for the problem your idea targets, for the specific buyer you named. We look for recurring pain, manual workarounds, product requests, switching or spending behaviour, and concrete consequences — counted by distinct people and distinct discussions, and every excerpt links back to its source.
- Does this prove an idea will succeed?
No. This is an evidence check, not market validation, and it does not predict success. It tells you whether the problem your idea assumes is already visible in real discussions — a starting point for customer conversations, not a guarantee.
- What happens when no evidence is found?
You still get a completed result with a 'No reliable evidence found' verdict. That is a valid and useful outcome — it doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist, only that we didn't find sufficient relevant evidence in the current dataset. It's a prompt to sharpen the idea or talk to customers, not a dead end.
- Is the tool free?
Yes. You get the full verdict, the buyer and workflow, verified people and discussion counts, top consequences, workarounds and product-request signals, evidence excerpts, what matches and what the evidence doesn't yet support, a next validation step, and a shareable link — all free, no sign-up. Pro adds the deeper evidence: every discussion, the full workaround and requested-capability analysis, and the complete community breakdown.
- Does Problem Signal share my submitted idea?
Your completed free report may be viewable by anyone with its unique link, and it is not indexed by search engines by default. Don't paste confidential or personally identifiable information. The result page uses a non-guessable id and never exposes your account.
- Can I share the completed report?
Yes — a completed result is public by link. Whoever you send it to sees the finished evidence check directly; they never need to rerun the tool. In-progress and failed checks stay private to you.