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Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

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Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#31

This is actually a very insightful question. You get them the same way you plan to get customers after you have built the product. If you do not have a way to get customers to test the idea, then you do not have a way to get customers after you build the product. The process of building an MVP includes the process of figuring out distribution. That said, it depends a lot on what type of product you are building. If y…

> The process of building an MVP includes the process of figuring out distribution.

As blindingly obvious as this is, I've never seen it put quite so concisely. Fantastic. I could've cut short so many bullshit discussions this way

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#32
Shameless plug for the service we built to solve this for ourselves - https://www.pickfu.com

The MVP was to meant to replace asking randos at a coffee shop about your idea/design/etc. Over time we've added demographic targeting, follow-up questions, and other requested features. Nowadays online sellers and other creators use it like an online focus group to validate ideas and products.

Some other ideas for finding an audience for your MVP:

  - google the exact problem you're trying to solve, reach out to authors/bloggers who've written about it
  - online ads to your target demographic 
  - LinkedIn prospecting (if you have a target customer profile)
  - Subreddits of your target problem area
  - Start writing/tweeting about the problem space and engage the audience that follows
  - comments section of relevant YouTube videos

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#34
I have the same question as you. Two sources of potential feedback I've found, which are not spammy or unpleasant for people:

- Adding an update to an Indie Hacker product profile with a link to a blog post

- Adding a post to the "Share Your Startup" thread in r/startups, which has been a thread that is started on the first of each month [0]

But, in general, I have the same questions as you, so I don't imagine this will provide more than a small boost in feedback.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/?f=flair_name%3A%22Share%2...

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#35
Betalist is good for this: https://betalist.com/

I'd also recommend spending the next 30 minutes putting together a very rough description and a mailing list sign up form, and then posting a comment in this thread with a link. Being on the front page of HN will get you hundreds to thousands of visitors, and it isn't easy, so don't miss the opportunity!

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#36
I have a system for this.

You have two problems, not one. You need to get useful feedback out of 100pct of people, and you might need more people.

To get useful feedback, distill your potential value proposition to one sentence. If you have multiple ways of saying it, make a couple. But one sentence only and write it down.

When you have someone from the correct category (target market) on the phone, yes, you need a phone or video call, emit the potential value proposition sentence exactly as you have written it, not a word different.

Do not do any extra run up other than hi, how much time do you have, pleased to meet you...

Then, shut up. This is called 'the golden silence' in sales. and write down exactly the first thing they say.

The first thing they say is the truth, and you need to listen to it.

after that, you can try to dive in, and they might say they didn't understand at first, but the reality is people like to please people, and all that subsequent talk is secondary. The first reaction is what you bank on.

When you are going to market, you will put ad money, web site visits, whatever, into a single sentence, and it must resonate. Period. And it must resonate with your target market - you did remember to define your target market and potentially do a value proposition for each. There are a lot of target markets who don't buy the product (investors, influencers), but usually you do that only after you believe you have a thesis and resonating message.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#37
post #8

Check out The Mom Test and find an audience to talk to first. Validate any idea long before you build an MVP. In my opinion it's two separate steps. I must admit I've also fallen in your trap many times myself. It's too fun to just go ahead and build something sometimes without considering the best way to find those early users first.

i once had a vc, during a pitch, who asked if i could sell to her mom. As it was database infrastructure, it seemed kinda wrong, but it turns out her mom owned a small business and was the primary tech buyer, and the mom was in the lobby because they were supposed to go to lunch. I didn't get interest from the firm but it was a heck of an experience.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#38
Honestly for us (https://butterflylabs.gitlab.io/api-documentation) we just cold emailed a large number of folks we thought were our target demographic. Basically LinkedIn, look for product managers who are mid-level, and reach out. We got our first two customers from there on our MVP. The thing to keep in mind is if your MVP would solve a real problem, usually folks will be willing to try your solution because it's something they really need. Otherwise your product is just a nice to have and you're probably close to but not quite hitting the right problem spot.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea / MVP?

#39
A couple of things need to be balanced, I think, as I'm doing just that with PriceUnlock (https://bychgroup.com/price-unlock/)

PriceUnlock will help SaaS owners finds the perfect pricing for their product, with more upside and less downside when trying new prices. Besides, it helps you stop leaving money on the table.

* THE THINGS*

1. You can "scratch and claw", as Jason Cohen (founder of WPEngine) puts it. He talks more about this in the YT link below and he also puts out this idea of 150 customers, not "1000 true fans". I highly highly recommend watching the video, regardless of going VC/bootstrapped. He also talks about 2 other ways besides scratching and clawing

https://youtu.be/otbnC2zE2rw?t=420

2. Building in public is an upward trend these days. Basically you share as many milestones/ups/downs about your journey of building it. This can be a trap as well: it only works if your audience is A) interested in you sharing that, B) probably hackers/builders etc.

I asked PG about this and he pretty much summed it up: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1375038728519974912

3. As I'm building PriceUnlock, you'll also notice that I'm collecting emails (the ol' way) to get people's interest. I don't want to make a mailing list, I want to build my product, so I'll aim to be better doing the second rather than the first. But it doesn't hurt to, as Rob Walling did with Drip, launch with some MRR hopefully... or at least with some interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLay7kksLtc

4. The usual set of things hackers do when they launch their thing: ProductHunt, Betalist, etc. Don't forget to join my subreddit on https://www.reddit.com/r/saas if that's what you're building (SaaS is v popular these days, so anyone reading this is invited!)

5. This pretty much ties to point 1, but the scratching and clawing is just another way to put the age-old adage: help (the relevant set of) people so you get their attention, use that attention as 'free advertising' for your product. It doesn't get any better than this as it's not intrusive and at least it's a win-zero-sum-game, at best a win-win. That's how I built my main company into 5M+ users and that's what I can preach

that said....

6. Deep down inside I thought what Jason Fried of Basecamp put best here. I'll let him say it: https://world.hey.com/jason/validation-is-a-mirage-273c0969

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