Author
Oleg Ivanov
Co-founder & CEO, Fluenta
Oleg is co-founder and CEO of Fluenta. He spent the last decade shipping products across fintech, commerce, and AI tooling, and now leads Fluenta's work scoring startup ideas against 25 live market and social data feeds.
Editorial standards
Every article bylined here passes Fluenta's 5-step verification process — source triangulation, live data backtest, named-author byline, public corrections log, and quote provenance. Read the full methodology →
Articles by Oleg Ivanov
Report
YC Spring 2026 Batch: All 194 Companies, Scored
We scored every company in YC's Spring 2026 batch on six public signals before Demo Day. The findings, the four groups, and a searchable board of all 194 with the questions each founder will get asked.
Validation
12 Bad Business Ideas the Data Killed in 2026
We scored 2026's most-hyped startup ideas on Fluenta's six live signals. These 12 fell under LRS 32. The data, the pattern, and the trust gap behind every one.
Market
State of New Business Ideas: May 2026
Fluenta scored 4,092 new business ideas from 74 sources in May. The Business Idea Demand Index opened at 57, Busy. AI is 38% of supply and merely average. Everyone can find pain; almost nobody proves someone will pay.
Validation
How to Validate a SaaS Idea in 2026 (Without Asking Your Friends)
Most validation advice is therapy. This is the only sprint that kills your idea with money — a 6-stage, 72-hour framework for solo & small-team founders, built on commitment signals from strangers. CB Insights-grade data, CEO-authored.
Founder Playbook
Customer Discovery Playbook: 12 Interview Scripts (2026)
12 customer discovery scripts tested across 47 founder interviews. Copy-paste ready. The exact questions that surface real demand vs polite lies.
Validation
TAM Explained: How to Calculate Total Addressable Market (2026)
TAM, SAM, SOM in plain English, triangulated with three methods and published as a range. Worked example from a 2.4-cent Fluenta run on an anonymized AI tool.
Traction
Pre-Seed Funding Playbook: How to Raise Your First $250K (2026)
The 8-week path 12 founders used to reach $250K pre-seed. LOI templates, 409a primer, warm-intro tracker. No cold-DMing 200 VCs.
Validation
The ChatGPT-Cofounder Era Is Ending. Here's What Replaces It.
Why LLM-recommended startup ideas got measurably worse in 2026, the structural mechanism, the Q2 data, and the six-signal alternative every founder can run before lunch tomorrow.