For example, I have a certain technical friend who called me a while back, all excited about his latest vision to solve a pet peeve of every computer and Internet user. "What if you could enter your sign-on password just once when powering on your system, and it was able to remember and supply that password to all your applications without user intervention? I'm going to write the software to offer this service!"

I'm sure you all realize that there could be quite a distance between a great idea and a great implementation, and an even greater distance to a great startup. However, many people don't have a clue on how to bridge the gap. So, trying carefully not to rain on his parade, I suggested that my friend complete the following analysis as due diligence on the idea before quitting his day job to create and roll out the solution: