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The very first thing you need to do is conduct strategic market testing, and feed what you learn about your product back in to its development. Take your product or service to a focus group of people you think would be interested and give them time for proper feedback. Record every test and discovery at this stage, so you can use this as documentary evidence of commitment to initial investors.
Research in and around your - and your competitor's - area of business. If there is an established customer database for your type of product, make contact with this network, introduce yourself and ask for their valued opinions. How big is your customer database? Have you already researched ways you could seek to reach out and extend it? If it's a niche market, have you already researched how you could reinvest in your product so you can give more?