This glossary defines every term LumenInsight uses to score a startup idea, in one place. Each entry is short by design: a working definition first, a link to the fuller explanation second.
The reason this vocabulary exists at all is that a single number, the Opportunity Score, hides more than it reveals on its own. Breaking a score into named parts, Friction, Viability, Market, and the signals that feed them, is what makes a score checkable instead of just trusted.
What is the Opportunity Score?
The Opportunity Score is the single number LumenInsight assigns to a startup idea, built from three weighted axes: Friction, Viability and Market. See how LumenInsight calculates its scores for the full breakdown of how the three axes combine.
What is Friction?
Friction measures how easy an idea is to build or replicate, worth 30% of the Opportunity Score. A higher Friction score means lower difficulty, the idea is easier to build on, not harder.
What is Viability?
Viability measures the technical soundness and sustainability of the project behind an idea, worth 30% of the Opportunity Score. This axis asks whether the underlying approach holds up, not just whether demand exists for it.
What is Market?
Market measures evidence of real demand for an idea, drawn from the Evidence Chain, and carries 40% of the Opportunity Score, more than Friction or Viability individually. Market carries the most weight on purpose: demand is the hardest of the three axes to fake, since it depends on independently verifiable signals rather than a single claim.
What is the Evidence Chain?
The Evidence Chain is the set of four independent signal families LumenInsight checks every idea’s problem statement against: what’s being built, discussed, used and searched. One family confirming an idea on its own is a data point. Multiple families agreeing is what LumenInsight treats as evidence. See reading a signal mismatch for two real cases showing agreement and disagreement side by side.
What is a signal mismatch?
A signal mismatch is when the four Evidence Chain families disagree, typically one loud signal (often a GitHub star spike) with the other three silent. A signal mismatch doesn’t disqualify an idea, but it means the Market score is resting on a single source rather than corroborated demand, which is a materially weaker kind of evidence.
What are the four signal types: build, discuss, use, search?
The four signal types are the categories the Evidence Chain checks independently for every idea.
- Build: is anyone shipping something in this space? Checked against GitHub, Show HN, Product Hunt and Betalist.
- Discuss: are people actively talking about the problem? Checked against Hacker News and Reddit.
- Use: is anyone already running a tool for this? Checked against npm and PyPI download counts.
- Search: are people looking for a solution before one exists? Checked against autocomplete data.
For a longer list of specific sources within each type, see 15 sources sorted by signal type.
What is the Daily Report?
The Daily Report is LumenInsight’s published list of scored startup ideas for a given day, each with its Opportunity Score and full signal breakdown visible. The Daily Report lives at /browse, and past reports are available in the archive.
What is a Deep Dive?
A Deep Dive is the expanded view of a single idea’s Evidence Chain, showing the actual data behind each of the four signal families rather than just the rolled-up Market score. Opening the Deep Dive before reading the headline number is the fastest way to tell a well-corroborated score from a single-signal spike.
In short
Opportunity Score is the headline number. Friction, Viability and Market are the three axes that build it, weighted 30/30/40. The Evidence Chain is what backs the Market axis, made of four signal types: build, discuss, use and search. A signal mismatch means those four disagree. The Daily Report and Deep Dive are where all of this is shown, not just claimed.
Bookmark this page. Every future LumenInsight post that uses one of these terms links back here on first mention.