This is the forth post in the Frequently-Asked Questions series. Be sure to also check out Visa Options for International Student Entrepreneurs, Finding a Teammate and How to Start a Scalable Non-profit.

Leslie eLab invited Dana Mauriello — a startup CEO who builds businesses that support entrepreneurs and inventors, and an adjunct professor at NYU Stern — for a master class on a question nearly every founder asks: Is my idea actually a thing? Can I build a business out of it?

Rather than starting with the market or the product, Mauriello began with the founder’s personal goals.

Start by Defining Your Goals

Many first-time founders treat their company as if it’s their boss and end up acting like interns in their own startups. Before evaluating whether an idea could become a business, founders need to decide whether it’s a business that works for them.

“The business is in service of your goals. You do not work for the business. The business works for you,” Mauriello said, further breaking down founders’ goals into three buckets.

• Money – What do you actually need financially to make this work?
• Impact – What change do you want this business to create in the world?
• Fulfillment – What do you want your day-to-day life to feel like?

For teams with co-founders, aligning these goals early is essential. One founder may want a venture-backed rocketship while another may want creative control or stable community impact. If these motivations stay unspoken, what looks like a strategy disagreement later is often a deeper misalignment of purpose.

Make Sure It’s Actually a Business Idea

Once your goals are clear, the next step is making sure you’re not mistaking a product for a business by asking yourself six foundational questions:

• User – Who is the person with a problem?
• Problem – What problem do they have?
• Solution – What solution will you provide?
• Revenue – How will you earn money?
• Marketing – How will you reach your customers?
• Operations – How will you actually make this plan a reality?

Answering these questions surfaces the stack of assumptions beneath your idea — everything from “People will like my product” to “I can charge this price” to “I can get the permit I need.” Your idea is only as strong as the assumptions supporting it.

Testing Your Idea

Founders need multiple tools to test assumptions and understand their risk:

• User interviews: Who your user actually is, whether they care about the problem and what they do now
• Prototypes: Whether your solution works, whether people understand it and how they interact with it
• Public data: Market size, pricing benchmarks, demand trends and industry standards
• Expert interviews: Feasibility checks from founders who have tried similar ideas, especially those who failed, and early conversations with investors about what they look for

Mauriello compares assumptions to a house of cards. Testing only the easy assumptions is like tapping the top few cards. Real validation requires pulling a bottom card — testing something that could actually make the tower fall.

“They give you the most data so you can move forward the most quickly,” she said.

Making the Decision

So, is your idea actually a business? Mauriello offers a simple statement structure to help founders synthesize their findings: “Yes, I would pursue this business if these things are true.”

Some examples include:

• “Yes, I would launch this hamburger pop-up if I can get a permit at this stadium and sell at least X per game.”
• “Yes, I would keep building this AI tool if at least 40% of beta users come back weekly without reminders.”
• “Yes, I would commit to this full-time if I can generate Y in monthly revenue within six months.”

“Always having the rolling statement in your head tells you what your next steps are, gives you clarity and gives you permission to walk away or pivot when the conditions aren’t met,” Mauriello said.

Need help with your next step? Sign up for Leslie eLab’s Startup Bootcamp to walk through these questions, validate your idea and decide whether it’s truly a business.

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