Recently, a student team pitched an idea for a double-sided marketplace, asking for €10k to build a website. This isn’t an unusual request, but it reveals a common misconception among early-stage founders. Here’s why this mindset needs a rethink.

You don’t need €10k for a website

First of all, you don’t need to spend €10k to get a website up and running. There are affordable, even free, options to build a fully functional site with platforms like Wordpress, Wix, or Squarespace. The internet is full of step-by-step guides to help you set up a professional-looking site for a fraction of that cost. Spending large sums at the early stage is rarely necessary - and, often, it’s counterproductive.

Do you even need a website to validate your idea?

Here’s the second question: do you even need a website at this point? If you’re just starting out, you should be focused on validating your idea and determining if it’s even worth pursuing. Sometimes, founders are so eager to build something tangible that they skip this crucial step. But validation comes first. And sometimes that means challenging whether a website is even needed in the earliest stages.

For example, in this case, the marketplace idea was about finding activities for millennials and gen z. The core problem wasn’t a lack of websites, but it was about helping people find relevant activities. So why not start by solving that problem directly?

Instead of spending €10k, you could create a small community on WhatsApp or Telegram, connecting your gen z student friends with businesses offering activities. If you start to see patterns -like a bunch of people interested in padel, for example - you can work with that. Maybe you discover that padel players also like craft beer. (Yes, it was a very obvious example from me, wearing my Patagonia vest and looking very VC while sharing these insights.) Now, you’re starting to build a real, data-backed understanding of your audience and their needs.

Building something small teaches you a lot

By starting small - maybe connecting people through WhatsApp or a Facebook group - you learn about your users’ pain points and preferences. This is the foundation you need to move forward. Once you’ve validated the idea and discovered a consistent pattern, then you can move to the next step. Maybe that’s building a simple Wordpress site to connect your padel-obsessed users with local courts and gear. Once that’s working, you can expand - maybe you add a section on craft beer or other activities your audience enjoys.

You can even create subdomains on Wordpress, expanding padelbuddy.xyz to include beer.padelbuddy.xyz. The point is, that you’re solving the problem first, not spending investor money on building something you’re unsure of.

Passion and resourcefulness go further than money

At the end of the day, investors aren’t looking for founders who just throw money at problems. They’re looking for founders who are passionate about solving a real problem and are resourceful in how they approach it. If you’re stuck thinking "I can’t start without funding," that’s a sign you may not be as passionate or resourceful as you need to be to succeed.

The lesson here is simple: before you ask for money, validate your idea with the tools and resources you have. If you can’t take the first steps without funding, maybe it’s time to ask yourself whether this is truly the problem you want to solve.