How to Know If Your Idea Is Worth Building (Without Spending a Dime)

In this episode, we dismantle the myth that market research requires big budgets or third-party consultants. Instead, Joe breaks down a founder-tested approach to validating ideas using nothing more than a spreadsheet, common sense, and hard-earned insight.

We walk through:

• Why you don’t need fancy market research to validate your idea—just your brain and Google.

• How to use pricing data and margin math to identify viable product opportunities.

• The crucial decision between co-manufacturing vs. in-house production and its long-term implications.

• Why subscriptions can be a game-changer, and how Go Brewing built its recurring revenue from day one.

• The overlooked cost of customer acquisition and why owning your data (email, SMS) trumps retail or Amazon-only models.

• How products like Jolie and Liquid Death disrupted legacy categories by reframing formats and lifestyle positioning.

• The reality of building something ahead of its time—including the lonely early days of Go Brewing’s non-alcoholic taproom.

• A candid take on why great product > great marketing—you can’t market your way out of mediocrity.

The takeaway? You don’t need permission or perfection to start—you need proof. And you can get that by doing the work yourself before hiring or scaling.