> You raise money, you build something, and then you have a limited time to see whether your hypothesis about the market was correct.
Or, you get to know an industry, see a need, design a solution, bounce your ideas off people in the industry, do some mock-ups to get some initial acceptance of the idea, ask if they'd pay for it, and if/when all that comes together, then start to build. If you cannot build it with your available resources, maybe look for some funding.
And then once you know an industry, see a need, etc... "You raise money, you build something, and then you have a limited time to see whether your hypothesis about the market was correct."
Works well if your startup is filling in a niche within an existing industry. Does not work well if your startup is creating a new industry. There is a reason why the failure rate for the latter situation is abysmal. But that is also the reason why the returns are so large and sought-after for that situation.
Or, you get to know an industry, see a need, design a solution, bounce your ideas off people in the industry, do some mock-ups to get some initial acceptance of the idea, ask if they'd pay for it, and if/when all that comes together, then start to build. If you cannot build it with your available resources, maybe look for some funding.