StretchLearn Course

Validate the Idea Before You Spend a Dollar on It.

Size your market, study your competitors, interview real customers honestly, and compress it into a one-page plan, using the frameworks investors actually expect.

Preview Curriculum Back to Catalog

Beginner10 hrSelf PacedRegistered

Course Overview

What this course is designed to develop

Most new businesses fail because they build something nobody will pay for, not because the founder lacked effort. This course replaces guessing with research: you will size a market top-down and bottom-up, separate TAM from SAM from SOM, study competitors with structured frameworks, and interview real customers using the Mom Test so the feedback you get is honest. You leave with a one-page business plan and a validated set of assumptions instead of a 40-page document nobody reads.

Learning Outcomes

What the learner should be able to understand, build, or execute.

Size a target market three ways using top-down, bottom-up, and value-theory methods with real data sources

Calculate TAM, SAM, and SOM for a specific business and defend each number

Run a structured competitor analysis using Porter's Five Forces and a feature-and-pricing matrix

Conduct customer interviews using the Mom Test that surface real problems instead of polite encouragement

Translate research into a tested set of assumptions on a Lean Canvas and a one-page business plan

Identify the riskiest assumption in a business and design a cheap experiment to test it

Curriculum Preview

Inside the curriculum: a structured path from fundamentals to execution.

Preview the course structure, see how the modules build on one another, and understand the path this program is designed to take you through.

Module 1

Module 1: From Idea to Researchable Question

Before you can research a market you have to state your idea as a falsifiable hypothesis and decide what evidence would prove you wrong.

3 lessons

Why Most Business Plans Are FictionContent · 45 min

Preview Enabled

Stating Your Idea as a Testable HypothesisContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Desk Research: Finding Free, Credible DataContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Module 2

Module 2: Sizing the Market: TAM, SAM, and SOM

Learn to put a credible number on the size of the opportunity using three methods, then narrow it from the whole world down to what you can realistically capture.

3 lessons

What TAM, SAM, and SOM Actually MeanContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Top-Down, Bottom-Up, and Value-Theory SizingContent · 55 min

LMS Access

Pricing Reality and Willingness to PayContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Module 3

Module 3: Competitor and Industry Analysis

Map who you are up against, how attractive the industry structurally is, and where the open space sits that you can own.

3 lessons

Finding and Categorizing CompetitorsContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Porter's Five Forces and Industry AttractivenessContent · 55 min

LMS Access

Positioning, Feature Matrices, and the Open SpaceContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Module 4

Module 4: Customer Discovery and the One-Page Plan

Get out of the building, interview customers in a way that surfaces truth, then fold everything into a Lean Canvas and a single-page business plan.

3 lessons

Customer Interviews and The Mom TestContent · 55 min

LMS Access

Surveys, Experiments, and Validating DemandContent · 50 min

LMS Access

The Lean Canvas and Your One-Page PlanContent · 55 min

LMS Access

Built for Application

A complete learning path, not a one-off inspiration hit.

This program is designed around progression: focused lessons, structured modules, applied resources, assessments, and a course rhythm that turns information into usable capability.

market researchbusiness planningTAM SAM SOMcompetitor analysiscustomer interviewsLean Canvasmarket sizingThe Mom Test