5/50/500k Start-Up Rule

My cousin emailed me recently the subject read “Need Advice” and the mail was about him wanting to do a start-up. He is part of a large tech company and been there for 4 years.

The challenge was he had two ideas, and he wanted my help on how to chose the best idea among the two.

We met and he took me through both the ideas - I asked him the usual questions - TAM, Competition, Penetration, Competition.

After 4 beers and loosening up a bit I told him screw all that, and what was the idea he felt very strongly about? He said it is like asking his mother which kid she likes the most… So there we were, not sure the way forward…

After a couple of more beers, i thought i had a start-up rule for choosing ideas..

1. Develop an idea with 5k Investment - define metrics

2. If the metrics checks out, Invest 50k more to build the idea further.

3. If the metrics check out you are ready for a 500k investment from an investor..

What according to you is a good rule to evaluate ideas quickly?