See who already tried your business idea and why they stopped
It names the companies that already tried your idea, when they quit and why, before you spend a dollar.
Published . Steps as of November 2026.
How do I check if someone already tried my business idea?
Describe your idea to an AI chat with web search on and ask it to find past attempts, what happened to them and why, with sources and a blunt score. Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini can all search, and Perplexity is handy when you want every claim cited. A chat without search will only guess, so turn search on. Whatever the score, the real test is a small offer to real people, so ask it for one you can run this month.
A picture made with AI to show the idea.
Your prompt
Fill in your details. Skip any you like.
Claude and ChatGPT open with your prompt already typed in. Perplexity can't be filled in from a link, so its button copies your prompt: paste it into the new chat.
The prompt that gets copied
Here's a business idea I'm considering: [YOUR IDEA, e.g. weekly meal-prep coaching for new parents]. My ideal customer is [YOUR IDEAL CLIENT, e.g. first-time parents in their 30s]. Don't be polite. Search the web and find companies or people who already tried this or something close. For each, tell me what they did, whether they're still going, and if they stopped, why (cite sources). Then list the free or cheap alternatives my customer already uses. Score my idea from 1 to 10 for whether someone will pay for it, and explain the score in three sentences. A low score is fine. Finish with one small test I could run this month to get a real person to pay me before I build anything.
Before you build, ask AI to search for companies that already tried your idea, what happened to them and why. You get a blunt score instead of polite praise, plus a cheap way to test if people will pay.
Step by step
- Open Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini with web search on.
- Paste the prompt below and describe your idea in two or three plain sentences.
- Open the sources for any company it says failed or pulled out.
- Run the small paid test it suggests before you build anything.
What you'll get
A cited list of past attempts and why they stopped, the free options your customer already has, a blunt 1 to 10 score and one small paid test to try.
Needs web search turned on. AI can't tell you if people will pay, so run the small test with real people.
- Made for
- Coaches, Consultants, Creators, Small business owners
- Works in
- Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini
