[ibrow]

But talking to customers is exactly what these guys did:

> So we talked to a few artists who said they thought it was a cool idea. BOOM! Our idea had been validated!

The idea had not been validated at all, just been told it was "cool". What they should have done next (or possibly at the same time) is spend a couple of hundred dollars on adwords to see if a cool idea converted into something people would actually want to buy.

What they should not have done is

> stopped talking to artists for a year and built (and rebuilt) the software until we thought it was acceptable

My point is that I would far rather spend $200-$500 on adwords and not on 1 year development of a product that is thought to be cool, but no one has actually had the opportunity to come to it fresh and click on an "order now" button.