If you are considering becoming a founder, a useful first step is surprisingly ordinary: speak to people. Ten conversations will not validate a company. They can give you much better questions than you started with.
Choose a specific person.
“Small businesses” is hard to interview. A person running a particular kind of business, with a particular task on their plate, is easier to find. Start with a group you can reach and describe clearly.
Ask about the last time.
Instead of asking whether an idea sounds useful, ask about the last time the problem happened. What did they do? What took too long? What did they pay for? What happened when they left it unsolved? Concrete stories are more useful than polite enthusiasm.
Listen for the workaround.
A spreadsheet, a recurring reminder, a freelancer, or a manual routine can tell you what a person already does to make progress. Learn why that workaround exists before offering to replace it.
Leave with a next step.
If the conversation reveals a problem you might help with, ask whether you can come back with something small to try. Keep a short record of what you heard, what surprised you, and what you still need to understand. Bring those observations to your founder application.