VALIDATION — the cheapest 7-day test (<$50)
Question to answer: Will strangers pay ~€49 for a described-not-drawn functional part delivered in ~24h, and can the agent pipeline actually produce a usable SCAD from a chat description without eating Joshua’s mornings?
Two risks, one week, tested in parallel. Neither requires the bot to exist — the “bot” is Joshua’s existing Discord/Telegram, manually relaying to agents. Wizard-of-Oz the whole thing.
Budget
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1 spool PETG (test prints) | ~€22 |
| Kleinanzeigen ad boosts (optional) | €0–10 |
| Everything else (agents, Mac, X2D time, Discord) | €0 |
| Total | ≤ €32 (~$35) |
Test A — Demand (days 1–7)
- Day 1: Put the landing page live (Cloudflare Pages,
overnight-partssubpage, EN +/de/— MORNING ACTION, Joshua deploys after filling Impressum + CTA links). CTA is “message the bot” → actually a Telegram/Discord link to Joshua. - Days 1–2: Post the offer in 4 places: Berlin maker Telegram/Facebook groups (2), Kleinanzeigen (1 “Biete” listing — German buyers land on
/de/), xHain community channel. Plus 10 Kleinanzeigen Suche-ad replies/day using the README template. r/functionalprint waits: hard dependency on the first real timelapse existing (showcase-only sub; posting without proof burns the channel). - Days 2–7: Every inbound gets the real flow: clarifying questions in chat, overnight design, morning preview → payment after design approval, before printing (PayPal.me link from the saved snippet / bank transfer — no Stripe setup for the test).
Test B — Pipeline (days 1–3, no customers needed)
Seed 6 realistic briefs from Kleinanzeigen wanted-ads and household needs (shelf bracket 32mm spacing, GoPro-to-tripod adapter, drawer divider, Etsy stamp jig, synth end-cheek from photo, board-game insert). Run each through the agent → OpenSCAD → morning-review → print loop and log per job:
- Minutes of Joshua’s attention (target: ≤15 min/job at morning review)
- Revisions needed before dimensionally correct (target: ≤2)
- Print-and-fit success (target: 5 of 6 usable)
Success thresholds (day 7 scoreboard)
| Signal | KILL | ITERATE | GREEN — proceed to week 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualified inquiries (real part, real dimensions) | <3 | 3–7 | ≥8 |
| Paid commitments at ≥€39 | 0 | 1–2 | ≥3 (≈€150) |
| Pipeline: usable part within 2 revisions | <3/6 | 3–4/6 | ≥5/6 |
| Joshua attention per job | >30 min | 15–30 min | ≤15 min |
Kill rule: 0 payments after 8+ qualified inquiries = pricing/trust problem, kill or reprice. <3 inquiries total = demand problem, kill (the 7/30 judge score was probably right). Any GREEN column miss on the pipeline test = don’t take money yet, fix the loop first — a botched paid job in week 1 poisons the tiny Berlin maker pond.
Explicitly out of scope for the test: the actual intake bot, Stripe, subscriptions, Telegram automation, any paid ads, any account creation. Build nothing until Test A pays for it.