hebel. today · 14 November 202626 / 80

Business · Startups

Build for strangers by testing against their messiest data

Shikshita Juyal of Crework Labs discovered that AI systems built for internal use often fail when exposed to real-world inputs, such as duplicate records or missing website domains. To prevent this, Crework Labs now…

Shikshita Juyal of Crework Labs discovered that AI systems built for internal use often fail when exposed to real-world inputs, such as duplicate records or missing website domains (Kim Doyal 18+ years building online. Now…). To prevent this, Crework Labs now requires a 10-minute test where a user inputs their 10 most difficult examples, which allows developers to identify failure points before a paying customer encounters them. After implementing this testing process and adding a confidence score to outputs, the firm reduced its junk data rate to single digits.

  • Cam Trew suggests building tools around proprietary business data or niche information rather than relying on general AI suggestions to identify viable business opportunities (Cam Trew from Artificial Wisdom).
  • Clay’s head of GTM engineering increased sales efficiency by building an account scoring model that ranks prospects based on the percentage of employees in sales roles (TLDR Founders).
  • Arnab Ray notes that five-year survival rates for new businesses fluctuate, with the 2018 cohort showing a 57.3% survival rate compared to 49.8% in 2006 (Consultant Magazine).
  • The Antonia Method founder pitches herself to event organizers and publishes weekly content across multiple platforms to build awareness instead of waiting for referrals (The Antonia Method).

Try today · 20 min

Test your product build against your customer's 10 messiest data inputs.

Ask a potential user for their worst, most error-prone examples.

You need

  • A list of 10 real-world, messy data inputs from a potential user
  • Your current product or prototype

Steps

  1. Collect the 10 most difficult or 'junk' examples from a potential customer
  2. Run these 10 examples through your product
  3. Count how many results are incorrect or strange
  4. Document the specific failure points for each incorrect result
  5. Create a test file using these 10 examples to validate future changes

One email instead of your newsletter pile.

Forward the newsletters you already get (a Gmail filter does it) and tell Hebel your goals. Every morning it reads them with 20,000 others and sends one short email, with one small thing to do today. Fewer emails, not more. Free during beta.

Start my paper →
LinkedIn X

Sources

  1. Kim Doyal 18+ years building online. Now… on hebel. →This article details the five-question checklist for AI systems, specifically the 10-minute test using messy customer data to ensure reliability before selling.

  2. Cam Trew, Artificial Wisdom on hebel. → ✎ Written by a personCam Trew explains why building around existing business data or niche datasets creates more value than generic AI-generated product ideas.

  3. TLDR Founders on hebel. →This report highlights how Clay uses specific employee role data to score and rank high-value sales accounts for their go-to-market strategy.

  4. Consultant Magazine on hebel. →Arnab Ray provides historical context on startup survival rates and emphasizes the necessity of evidential validation through early sales attempts.

  5. The Antonia Method on hebel. →The Antonia Method author describes the specific business development activities and content strategies used to proactively reach customers instead of relying on word-of-mouth.

More in Business

Auditing the technical and operational footprint of software investments

The extractive logic of digital growth

Shrinking the gap between intent and impact

Scaling through manual labor versus automated delegation

Growth equity investors bet on unit economics over current profitability

Startups yesterday

Turn conversations into paid pilots to prove market fit

Sign in to Hebel first

Likes, your collection and done Hebel need an account. We email you a six digit code; no password.