You cannot be sure you really understand any part of any business problem unless you go and see for yourself firsthand. It is unacceptable to take an… - Eric Ries

Part of the special challenge of being a startup is the near impossibility of having your idea, company, or product be noticed by anyone, let alone a competitor.

value in a startup is not the creation of stuff, but rather validated learning about how to build a sustainable business.

This is an old direct marketing technique in which customers are given the opportunity to preorder a product that has not yet been built. A smoke test measures only one thing: whether customers are interested in trying a product. By itself, this is insufficient to validate an entire growth model. Nonetheless, it can be very useful to get feedback on this assumption before committing more money and other resources to the product.