Intro.
#Why the P Section Comes Down to 30 Seconds
Korea's Pre-Startup Package, Early Startup Package, TIPS, and K-Startup programs all use a P-S-S-T four-axis evaluation, where P carries 25–30% of the weight. It's not just the biggest single weight — it's also the section where reviewers form a favorable or unfavorable impression the fastest. If P is weak, everything after it — Solution, growth Strategy, Team — looks weaker too, no matter how strong it actually is.
주의
Signals that let a reviewer spot a rejection candidate fastest in the P section: (1) a problem the founder never personally experienced; (2) a vague market definition; (3) zero interviews; (4) the TAM doesn't match the solution's actual target.
02
#The 4 Signals Checked Within 30 Seconds
| Signal | What's checked | Rejection signal |
|---|
| Pain authenticity | Evidence the founder or interviewees experienced it firsthand | Only a list of “this will probably happen” assumptions |
| Market definition | Who, where, and how many, explicitly stated | Abstractions like “N hundred million people worldwide” |
| Interview evidence | 10+ interview notes | Zero, or only family and friends |
| Consistency | P → Solution → market → revenue all line up | TAM is global, but the solution is limited to one Korean neighborhood |
These four aren't independent. If the pain is real, interviews follow naturally; if there are interviews, the market definition gets concrete; and once it's concrete, consistency follows. In other words, if one is weak, the other three look weak too.
03
#Pain Authenticity — ‘Interesting’ vs. ‘That's Exactly My Problem’
The question a reviewer silently asks most often while reading P is: “has this person actually suffered through this problem?” If the answer is no, every claim that follows gets weaker. If the founder lacks firsthand experience, direct quotes from interviewees need to stand in for it.
- “That's exactly my problem” signal: the interviewee immediately volunteers a similar story of their own
- “Interesting” signal: the interviewee just listens, with no story of their own
- “Hmm, not really...” signal: pushback against the problem itself (a poorly defined pain point)
TIP
Including one or two direct quotes in the P section significantly boosts credibility. A quote like “when I did X, it took me 30 minutes” lets a reviewer feel the authenticity of the pain within 30 seconds.
04
#Market Definition — Who, Where, How Many
An abstract market definition doesn't pass. All three axes — who, where, and how many — need to be satisfied before a market counts as “defined.” “17 million people in the MZ generation” is not a market definition — it's so broad that no specific marketing or distribution strategy could ever target it.
| Axis | Weak definition | Strong definition |
|---|
| Who | The MZ generation | Working women aged 25–34 in single-person households earning ₩3.5M+/month |
| Where | Korea | Living in the greater Seoul area or a metro city, 30+ minute commute |
| How many | 17 million | Roughly 920,000 single working women in the greater Seoul area (KOSIS 2025) |
It's tempting to think a narrower market definition is a weakness, but it's actually the opposite. A narrow market definition makes “how will we win Early Adopters” concrete — and that specificity is itself a trust signal. Per the Crossing the Chasm rule, the standard approach is for SAM to target only the 5–15% Early Adopter slice of TAM.
05
#Interview Evidence — Fake vs. Real
What matters more than the number of interviews is their quality. Ten interviews with family and friends is close to zero. Real interviews have to be conversations with people who genuinely fit your target customer segment.
| Element | Fake interview | Real interview |
|---|
| Subject | Family, friends, acquaintances | Strangers who match your defined target segment |
| Question style | “What do you think of our product?” | “The last time you needed to do X, what did you actually do?” |
| Recorded answer | “They said they liked it” | Direct quote + date + interviewee attributes |
| Aggregation | Skewed toward positive answers | Positive, negative, and ambiguous responses all recorded |
주의
“What do you think of our product?” is not an interview. People tell the builder it's good to their face. A real interview never mentions “the solution” — it digs deep only into “the problem situation” (the Mom Test).
06
#Consistency — P → Solution → Market → Revenue Alignment
A reviewer doesn't read the P section in isolation. While reading P, they're simultaneously checking it against the solution, market size, and revenue estimates later in the document. The moment that consistency breaks, trust collapses.
- Does the pain defined in P connect directly to the Solution's core features?
- Does P's target segment match the basis used to size SAM/SOM?
- Do the attributes of P's interviewees match the customer-price assumptions in the revenue estimate?
- Does P's ‘Why now’ evidence (regulation, technology, behavior) line up with the commercialization timeline?
TIP
Reviewers flip back and forth through the PDF quickly, checking the math on consistency. If P's target is working women aged 25–34 but the revenue estimate uses student pricing, trust collapses instantly.
Summary.
#30-Second Self-Simulation Checklist
Try answering these 7 questions about your own business plan's P section within 30 seconds. If the answer doesn't come immediately, that's a sign P is weak.
- Did you write your pain point in one sentence? (If so, does that sentence contain words from your own experience?)
- Is your target defined across all 3 axes — who, where, how many?
- Do you have 10+ interviews that aren't family or friends?
- Did you include 1–2 direct quotes in the P section?
- Do the TAM/SAM/SOM sources and timeframes match?
- Does P's target match the customer assumptions in your revenue estimate?
- Did you address 2 or more of the 3 Why Now elements (regulation, technology, behavior)?
CTA
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