[aaco]

"Would you rather spend 6 months hacking together a product just so you don't offend 10 people?"

Probably not, if by "offend" you mean "market research", but that is not what I'm talking about. I'm specifically talking about the method you proposed, which I don't find to be fair.

In your question, you seem to imply that "market research" as a whole is offensive, which is not what it seems to me. Look at the Dry Test (the method Tim Ferris wrote about) mentioned up in this thread. It seems fair enough to me, and you still get the email of the people who are interested in your product.

"if you always play by the rules you'll never make it."

I simply don't buy that. Do you really mean never?

[vaksel]

I'd rather be not fair to 10 people, than waste 6 months chasing an idea that doesn't work.

Except the dry test won't tell you anything. Cart abandonment rate means that the numbers you get don't mean anything. Your actual sales maybe 10 times less.

If you are bootstrapping then yes...I do mean never. Well there are probably a few exceptions...but that's just pure luck.