First Users Are Harder to Get Than the Product
Founders are grappling with the challenge of acquiring initial users for their new products and frameworks. They're seeking practical, non-viral strategies beyond standard advice like Product Hunt and Reddit, and are struggling to find effective channels and understand audience response. The core pain is a lack of visibility and difficulty connecting with their target users.
SOURCES (60)
“I totally can see why you would think that it's difficult and it's really an important part of making a successful product however it doesn't have to be hard. It becomes easy once you understand it's a seduction game. You must talk to your audience…”
“When you launch something new, the hardest part isn't building it. It's that nobody has heard of you, so Google and tools like ChatGPT have no reason to mention you to anyone. To make it even harder, what founder actually has the time to market? Backlinks help fix that. When other real websites link to you, you start showing up. The problem is the usual ways to get GOOD backlinks take time. Paying for links is risky. Emailing strangers to ask for one gets ignored. And "just write gr”
“I'm considering offering it as a service, but I wouldn't publish under my own developer accounts. Everything would go through the client's Apple Developer and Google Play accounts (which I would assist setting up and be given proper permissions) so they keep full ownership. This process is difficult: developer account setup, certificates, app signing, App Store Connect/Play Console, metadata, screenshots, subscriptions, testing 😝(yes, I've got testers), policy compliance, review”
great answer. thanks ! it always helps to get a new perspective.
“Try adding new features that are explicitly paid. That way the free people still have what they have, but if you have compelling new features, they know they can get them. Add special branding around the feature that makes it obvious what’s free and what requires payment. Eventually all of your current customer will know and decide if the paid features are worth the money.”
“If you're building something, comment what it is and who you think it's for. I'll reply with the kind of people I would start with on LinkedIn if the goal was just to find the first 10 users. Most of the time the problem isn't that LinkedIn is dead. It's that the target is still too broad. We’ve been building LinkedNav around this exact problem, so I spend a lot of time thinking about who to reach out to first, what signals matter, and what angle is actually worth testing. Ha”
“Four products with zero revenue screams distribution problem more than demand problem tbh. Were these all launched to the same audience? Because sometimes the product is fine but youre just not in front of people who have the budget and the pain.”
“Honestly, for a couple of them I didn't do much marketing is basically true. I posted a few times and gave up when nothing happened. But that's kind of what I want to ask was your validation before building mostly doing the marketing early and seeing if anyone bit? Or something separate from that? Curious what "checking demand" actually looked like for you in practice.”
“Hi everyone, I'm a software engineering student, and I want to start a small software business. My idea is to build small, useful tools or scripts that solve real problems and sell them as one-time purchases (not a subscription). I'm not sure if this business model is common or if it already has a specific name. I'm looking for advice on: Is this a viable business model? Where can I find real problems worth solving? Should I learn SaaS first, or is there another path that's bette”
“The mistake is treating communities as places to broadcast. They’re places to answer. What actually works: stop looking for permission to promote and start looking for threads where your tool is the answer. Search Reddit, Discord, and forums for people describing the problem your reselling tool solves. Reply with a genuinely useful answer to their specific situation, and mention you’re building something for it, happy to give them free access as an alpha tester. That’s not spam, that’s relevance”
“It depends on what the product is. Nobody can’t truthfully tell you the correct answer without knowing details. Some products are meant to be “free” and can be monetized later. Some will never work if they are monetized. Is there an opportunity to build a loyal and large community, is this is a niche product or one with mass appeal opportunity, is this consumer or b2b, etc.”
“Hey everyone I’m currently building a reselling tool (no, I’m not naming it here). I’m at the Alpha stage and I really need 3-8 "truth-tellers" to stress-test my logic and tell me if this is actually useful or if I should scrap the project Here’s my problem: I’ve spent the last week joining relevant Discord communities to find potential users, but every single one of them has strict "No DMing members" and "No Self-Promotion" rules. I’ve reached out to a few owners f”
“Several months ago, I joined a WhatsApp community with around 500 people. Once a community becomes large enough, you start noticing certain patterns.Whenever someone announced a new product idea, the responses were usually the same:“That sounds amazing.”“I would definitely use it.”“Great idea.”“Can’t wait to try it.”I do not think people were intentionally being dishonest. Most were simply being kind. Nobody wants to be the person who discourages someone before they have even started.But that is”
“I know about Product Hunt, Hacker News, indie directories, and some newsletters, but I’m wondering what actually sends useful traffic. What platforms gave you real clicks, signups, or feedback? submitted by /u/ChanceGlittering6323 [link] [comments]”
One thing that's worked for me is talking to people who already have the problem, not people who just like trying new products. Instead of asking, "Who wants to beta test?", I…
“Create an X account. I am working on my products and X is great for meeting like-minded founders and also people willing to try your product out. It really has helped me a lot.”
“I released a mobile puzzle game a few weeks ago and got about 100 downloads after a month, mostly by asking friends and family. I tried posting on different subreddits to get some players and feedback, but it didn't really work, though maybe 1 or 2 people commented saying they really love these kinds of games. The game is perfect for short sessions (like Cut the Rope). It’s built around a mechanic that isn't brand new, but to my knowledge, it has never been used like this for a”
“One thing I've noticed is that your first users rarely come from the first channel you try. They usually come from the first place where people already know they have the problem. I usually start by looking at where competitors get their traffic from and who they're targeting. It saves a lot of guesswork.”
“I’m reaching the stage where writing more code feels much safer than trying to find users. I’m building a pre-beta product for people who research public companies. The idea is to keep filings, financials, valuation assumptions, and research notes together instead of rebuilding the context from spreadsheets and open tabs every quarter. The product isn’t ready for a public launch, and I don’t want to spam investing communities with a waitlist link. Paid advertising also feels premature before I k”
“Hi, been lurking around here for a bit, I see mostly B2B products, usually someone is building something, found a pain point, then side tracked to build a solution for that instead. Everyone is building a tool for others to build tools XD. Don't get me wrong, really appreciate some of the tools built by indie founders, cheaper and sometimes works better than a lot of the bigger companies. Gladly paid for one recently. I'm currently building a cross platform Android and iOS app, so just c”
“Make the product easy to find for a person already interested. In the places where they are most likely to look at. Give it time. Sometimes is a matter of building momentum over time.”
“As the title says, how do you handle marketing execution, strategy and positioning of your product? How did you carve out a specific corner in your buyers’ mind? submitted by /u/BuyOk4066 [link] [comments]”
“For digital products I usually start by looking at niche-specific directories rather than cold outreach. One that helped me was AffiliateProgramDB since it lists programs and affiliates by industry, so you can filter by niche and see commission rates and cookie durations before reaching out. Saves a ton of time compared to guessing who's active. Beyond that, joining a few relevant subreddits and Facebook groups where marketers hang out tends to surface people already promoting similar stuff.”
“You're right ! I miss judged. Perhaps for you it's interesting to make a tool that can be self hosted with a subscription in it. The user or company can host it and if they want to unlock everything they need to pay.”
“I've just published my Unity asset and I've tried to post it on some Discord servers, but the visit view stat is still really low, and no sale yet. How should I go about marketing it? I would really appreciate any guidance on this matter submitted by /u/Ill_Warning3011 [link] [comments]”
“My first 3D eBook is algebra foundations targeting college students who are taking algebra. I’ve been active in Algebra/math subreddits (as you can see if you look through my profile and posts) but those have brought me barely any traction. Granted I’m only talking about algebra and not really my 3D ebooks (but I get criticism or told this is not a place for advertisement when I promote knowria)”
“I just finished my first ebook and published it. What is the next steps? How do I advertise? submitted by /u/notanarc77 [link] [comments]”
“I’ve got a running project. Some subscribed users from Argentina, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Colombia. I want to launch it for the US but I know that market is really demanding due to a lot of competition there. What are some general things a SAAS should comply for it to be accepted by the people there? submitted by /u/ArtisticBathroom4798 [link] [comments]”
“I’m rebuilding a product for fantasy sports commissioners and trying to validate demand before football season. The product helps commissioners manage the money side of private leagues: tracking dues, who paid, payment instructions, partial payments, expenses, payouts, reminders, and clean reports to share with league members. It does not hold league funds. Commissioners can still collect through Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, PayPal, escrow service, bank transfer, etc. My current validation sprint: em”
“Did you talk to users and ask what they want? Or did you just build something you think people want? Most engineers build things that people don’t want because they never talked to users and ask what they want. Read the book The Mom Test.”
“I know it sounds counterintuitive. But is anyone actually getting any traction with build in public anymore when building is now the easy part? Back then, build in public made sense when the building part was actually hard. That's probably because people would wonder how you built your product and its workflows. So lately everyone admits that distribution is hard. Of course it is. So why don't we share your journeys to distribution instead? The kind of raw struggles and triumphs we encou”
“Just wondering if this is common or if you can see anything thay would lead to no reviews. I was really hoping to get some good feedback to find pain points in my game. I want to get it out of mixed with updates but I can't if I dont know what the problem is. Thanks submitted by /u/samohtvii [link] [comments]”
“founder here, sharing a tactic that worked better than i expected. i'm in a category (wordpress backup plugins) where every competitor says "fastest" and nobody has numbers. race to the bottom on empty claims. so instead of adding my own empty claim, i built an open benchmark: same hardware, same site, same db, ran 8 plugins including mine through identical backup and restore jobs. published all of it, method included, so anyone can rerun it and catch me if i'm cooking the numb”
“tried this exact thing with a mate's collection of small tools couple years back. the dms got us a ton of sales at first, like 15-20 a day no worries. but then the support requests started flooding in, people wanting help installing python scripts or asking why some api key doesnt work. we spent more nights on discord than making money. the smartest buyers were the ones who just wanted to reskin and flip em, they never asked a question. if you do it, put a hard line in the deal that it's”
“Hmm, I can see how that could help with getting more people to try it. I’m just wondering whether it also brings people who are genuinely interested in testing and giving useful feedback, or mostly people interested in the free trial and coupon. Maybe I’m overthinking it tho”
“Yeah, that’s actually why I decided to run the closed beta in small groups instead of letting everyone in at once. I want to learn from the first group, fix the main problems, and then invite the next one so I don’t keep getting the same feedback. The problem I’m facing now is much simpler: where do I find those first five people?”
“I usually just post on social media, got some reach and offered a free trial. If they gave me useful feedback during the trial, I would give a coupon”
“Your buyer may be the lab, not the student. A student has a short window and little incentive to introduce a new system, while a supervisor feels the repeated cleanup across every cohort. I would offer one lab a fixed thesis template plus export workflow and measure whether it removes duplicate entry for the next three students.”
“The first testers I got value from came from a specific job, not a general "try my app" ask. Ask five people to complete one task and answer: where did you hesitate, what did you expect next, and would you do this again next week? Track completed task plus one concrete quote; early download counts alone will mostly confuse you.”
“Be an amazingly good communicator and be able to create excitement without people immediately feeling like you’re selling to them.”
Yesterday I launched my first product DipLangs (diplangs.com). Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. For the last few months I've been building DipLangs because I was frustrated while learning German…
“I would like to hear your thoughts about launching strategy. A hyper-niche utility app (for chess players). The original intent was to give 3 actions for free in each rolling 24-hour period, forever (freemium). Those who need more actions can unlock the app with a one-time payment and own it fully unlocked forever. The question is would it be a good idea to give the app completely for free for 1-2 months (and letting the users know the free period will end) so i can get early users and feedback.”
“Hello, I've just started publishing my projects. I have no knowledge or experience in marketing and sales. Therefore, I don't know how to announce or promote a project. What are your experiences in this area? How should a software project be promoted or announced in a specific niche? Also, is it possible to do this organically without a budget, or should a paid promotion plan be considered? submitted by /u/CivanOnur [link] [comments]”
“Founder here, first day numbers are:- First day stats:- Visitor -32 Signups - 6 Proposals -5 The product helps small agencies to generate proposals for clients using meeting notes -> little edits -> touch-up -> send to client. It's easy to send in under 10 minutes and save hours of work. Tech Stack - Next.js 15, Supabase, OpenAI GPT-4o, Paddle Is it good enough? submitted by /u/PuzzleheadedOwl2162 [link] [comments]”
“The beta ask is pretty broad. I’d give the first testers one job, maybe create a profile and publish one replay, then watch where they stop. Asking them to test streaming, posts, marketplace, and discovery at once will give you fuzzy feedback.”
“I'm building a platform to help people discover tools that are genuinely useful but buried in the vastness of the internet. Still early, but I think starting early is the best way to earn trust and shape the format an audience actually wants. I'm not short on ideas, but I'd love to hear yours too. I'm also planning a weekly newsletter around this. If there's anything you'd want to see in it, let me know! submitted by /u/anonymouspeddler21 [link] [comment”
“A question to OP: how do you test a product to sell? Do you buy ads or try other ways (say, Reddit)?”
“launch posts are weird because most people do not care that you launched. but they might care about the messy thing you fixed this week. a changelog is basically a list of tiny customer pains, and those are way easier to turn into useful posts than another “i built x” announcement. what has worked better for me: explain the bug or workflow problem in plain language say why the obvious fix was not enough show the small product decision you made end with the lesson, not the feature example: “we ad”
“I'm a builder, not a marketer. Every project I've shipped kind of died in silence. Not because it was bad, but because I never figured out the "okay, now go get users" part. So this time, before writing a single line of code, I forced myself to validate demand with actual data instead of vibes. I spent about $129 on Ahrefs. Here's exactly what I did. Hopefully it saves another first-time founder a few months. Don't ask "is my idea good?" Ask, "how do peop”
“Hi, I'm a developer who built a niche product and realized no one searches for the niche yet (it's highly specific construction accounting compliance). I know the problem exists because I work in the industry and use it daily, but I don't know how to market it via PPC. what puzzles me theres two or three other products that go into a similar direction as my product. How do they advertise it? is there a way to figure this out? submitted by /u/kLOsk [link] [comments]”
“Today, Clutch Intelligence got its first paid user. I know one paid user is not traction, and we are nowhere close to having everything figured out. But after months of building, testing, rebuilding, and wondering whether gamers would actually pay for this, seeing someone make that decision feels like a real line in the sand. We are building a voice-native AI gaming coach for PC gamers. We launched first with Overwatch because we did not want to build another chatbot that gives generic gaming ad”
“I had a launch like that once, and I spent way too long pretending the first spike meant anything. it mostly taught me that if people aren't coming back or sharing it on their own, the download number is just confetti, which is a brutal little lesson. I've been using redditmaster a bit for spotting threads that look like they might have actual intent, but even then the hard part is still making the thing good enough that it keeps getting mentioned after launch.”
“Hello Everyone 👋🏻 I found a problem related to database and query optimization some time ago. Now I have solved it, and I am at a phase where I need some pilot customers to help move forward. I want guidance on how to find pilot customers. How do you guys make this possible? submitted by /u/Severe-Coconut6156 [link] [comments]”
“i’ve been noticing this in my own side projects lately. i’ll put a screenshot on the page and think “cool, people can see the product now.” but a lot of the time the screenshot is basically an empty dashboard, a settings page, or some generic UI that doesn’t prove anything yet. the thing i’m trying now is to show the first useful state instead. not just “here’s the app”, but “here’s what you get after using it once.” a generated result, a filled-in dashboard, a before/after, a 20-second demo vid”
“I am new in POD please someone can suggest me what you guys are using for creating high quality production grade mockups, SEO, title, tags and description auto suggestions, market research, and product listing. basically what tools are mainly preferred for store management? Thanks in advance submitted by /u/0xsurya [link] [comments]”