If you built a job board, how did you validate your idea?

I'm trying to validate if a job board for former founders and indie hackers is a good idea.

The question I need to validate is:

1. is the experience of former entrepreneurs valuable to enterprises or do they see it as a resume gap?
2. do they struggle to find that experience?

Email outreach can take a long time to yield a strong signal. What would be a faster alternative?