Niche Scoring Signals Technical Founders Keep Ignoring

Signals technical founders consistently miss when scoring niches.

Signal: Builder-Fit Is High Only Because You Can Build It

Capability is binary. If your high builder-fit score depends on engineering capability rather than audience or trust, the score is wrong. Re-score as 4-5.

Signal: Reachability Is GitHub Stars

GitHub stars do not correlate with paying customers. Score reachability by paying-customer channels.

Signal: Existing Spend Is Zero in the Whole Niche

You are educating a market. The score should be 3 or below regardless of how exciting the technical problem is.

Signal: Differentiation Is "Better Engineering"

Customers do not see engineering quality. Score by customer-visible mechanism.

Signal: The Boring Niche Scored Higher

Strong signal. The boring niche has the customer-side criteria the exciting niche lacks. Trust the numbers.

How to Stop Ignoring Them

Get a non-engineer to re-score the same five candidates. Compare. The honest score lives between yours and theirs.