Discount nothing. Evaluate everything.
When you're building, any idea could make a difference in your future success. Treat them accordingly.
There's been some chatter on the interwebs about how tight a deck should be when pitching investors. The answer is always, "as tight as you can."
The reason for that, however, is simply ridiculous. Docsend reported that investors spend very little time looking through decks.
They breeze through them, pattern matching to their heart’s content. In 2 minutes and 47 seconds, they make a determination on whether they should invite founders to a meeting. That's crazy, right?
Investors are validating a market opportunity, founder potential, and the world-changing capacity of an idea in less than three minutes.
That's insane
There is no way they can assess that much in that amount of time
This is why you have so many missed opportunities in venture capital. It's also why
I compare this phenomenon to a GM in the NBA evaluating lottery prospects for 10 minutes. You don't bet your entire career/franchise on a 10-minute decision, that is how you get dramatic draft busts. It is also how you get draft "steals." In the same vein that those players are being evaluated on their life's work...so are founders.
When anyone comes to you with an idea, don't discount it. Evaluate it. If it's a customer, take the time to discover whether not it is a common theme amongst your customer base. It may be a new feature that needs to be built or a unique way of delighting them.
Look at those comment cards or feedback forms - there is a lot of gold there.