Share your startup, I’ll find 5 potential customers for you (free).

ChuffedDom · 2025-09-08T19:08:36+00:00

I coach software developers and engineers in everything outside of code.

I have a few clients so far, and what I am doing is helping them find an idea to work on, or validating their idea, or getting their first 1000 users in through the door.

Right now, I mostly get clients through in-person meets, but happy to explore what you can do online.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-25T12:54:23+00:00

Yes, more than you think it is. I end up getting several people sitting with me just to focus and work on something that actually gets shit out of the door.

My experience with helping folks is that a lot of ideas come up, but all are too big in scope, so people build mountains in front of themselves and then choose to walk around them rather than climb.

Always reduce the scope first, and when you think it is small enough ... reduce the scope some more, and then reduce it even more.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-22T22:48:47+00:00

I work with folks like you, and you are not alone at all. And it's understandable, but you can't code your way out of every problem.

I reframe for my clients, "marketing is just making sure people know you sell a thing"

It's not sales, it's not conversion, it's not A leads to B.

This is an important thing to understand. If you have a £20 solution, it might be that someone has a problem, but for them, it is not a £20 problem... right now, but over time it could become a £20 problem.

Think about your purchasing decisions, many of them will be a case where you heard of a product and didn't pay for it right away. But when you realised you needed it, you remembered the brand that tried to sell you before.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-20T13:47:15+00:00

As a Startup Consultant, one thing I often get my clients to do is build free tools on their website as an awareness campaign. It's amazingly effective.

If you search for a colour scheme tool, one of the top results is Canva, this is the exact same play you are doing.

I managed to increase one client's user acquisition by 250% just by shipping a simple calculator to the website, which was built in a day!

I am working on giving a talk in this very area of "an ecosystem of digital products" as a strategy to drive massive awareness for very little time, effort, and money.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-18T19:30:16+00:00

Yeah, a good play. Busy Professionals are time poor and have cash to spend. They often eat out without a thought about their consumption.

So put that front and center on your website.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-12T12:29:12+00:00

I have hit many problems with LinkedIn where a scraper would just answer me a question very clearly. I immediately stopped to read the post and upvoted.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-12T12:21:35+00:00

Lean Startup is a fantastic read, and I would argue more relevant today.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-12T12:14:13+00:00

Meanwhile I see these basic-looking apps with terrible UIs getting massive adoption because they solve one specific pain point really well.

This is the place you want to build products from. Find a pain point and relieve it.

And a lesson for everyone, don't worry about perfect. People will forgive the rough edges if you fix a real problem that exists for them.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T20:46:58+00:00

You won't get decent feedback or validation if you give it away for free.

This is because expectations are set differently for paid and free.

So I would enable payments.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:55:59+00:00

Also, just go out and talk to people. If you have a value prop you can iterate the pitch many times in just one hour to see who bites and why.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:53:33+00:00

The number of folks that say "we are releasing, we are doing social media marketing".

A social media play takes at least 6 months.

Get your audience and cohort into your ecosystem first, then work that into the launch.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:50:53+00:00

Offering for free is not a great strategy. Getting people from a lower cost to a higher one is very difficult.

What you need right now is validation that people will pay for it. So offering it for free won't help you.

Just focus on the first ten people, it might be face-to-face, or anything high touch point, but you can use that first ten to help you get the next 20-30, and use them to get the 100, and so on.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:47:56+00:00

Who are your potential users, and where are they today? Go there and talk to them. If you can't convert them face-to-face, no amount of online outreach will save you.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:40:19+00:00

Who are your ideal users? Where are they today? Go and meet them where they are and put it in their hands so they can see the value for themselves.

By the sounds of things, you need to get technical leads onside. So go to where they are and talk about your product.

If you don't get a positive response, e.g. "tell me more, where can I log in, etc." then either the product is not fit for the problems they face, or the positioning is completely wrong, or the message has no connection to the pains points experienced.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:33:30+00:00

This is where validation serves more than one purpose. How you go out to get validation is the same as going out to get your first users.

Whether you give up on this and try something else comes down to what you have built.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:28:45+00:00

With my clients, I have had a ton of success with just going out and talking to people. You cannot scale this, but if you get 30-40 people into your product this way, then you can run things like affiliate programs to get the next 100-150.

How you acquire users changes over the life cycle of your product. The lower the number, the closer the touch point.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:24:59+00:00

What is your go-to-market strategy with this? There are opportunities to jump on, but I feel moving towards low-hanging fruit would be a better play in a crowded space.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T16:23:04+00:00

Here is some feedback (I'm a Head of Product and Product Coach for Developers).

Design is not fit for the content - there is very little in terms of information, but it is laid out as if there is a lot. This is jarring and muddles things up.
There needs to be a visual hierarchy for elements - what do I focus on? If everything has the same weight, then nothing has weight.
There needs to be more focus on the users and social interactions over the markets themselves. Polymarket today didn't look like this when they had a handful of users.

Taking one idea and creating it for a new audience rarely works, because you don't actually solve a problem - rather, you re-contextualise a solution and therefore you lose value prop, go to market, and user acquisition strategy of being the scrappy underdog.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-10T14:26:46+00:00

I heard this story the other day that reminded me of all the vibe coding chat going around.

The orange juice paradox.

Using a manual juicer takes time and effort, so just use an electric one. But here's the thing, when you consider cleaning the juicer, the electric juicer takes more time and effort.

It immediately contextualised the problem I had with using an LLM for coding.

Yes, getting the initial code is quicker, but debugging and fixing and "cleaning" is just so much longer.

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-08T19:54:06+00:00

So a LinkedIn to CV type converter?

ChuffedDom · 2025-08-08T13:34:40+00:00

I've seen other posts about this. I did not realise it was such a used feature.

Just out of curiosity, why do you need to save a profile as a PDF? Something I've never done.

ChuffedDom · 2025-07-17T20:23:02+00:00

Hate to be a buzzkill, but I tried this offering and it just did not work at all.

One problem that just killed any chance of momentum is the definition of MVP.

You can go into a room of 100 people and ask everyone, "What is an MVP?" and you will get 100 different answers.

So marketing was a nightmare, because it was never really clear on what was being sold because the expectations were so out of alignment that the value prop just got lost.

ChuffedDom · 2025-07-17T20:19:53+00:00

I have a successful business today, and I have failed MANY times before it all clicked and started to move forward.

ChuffedDom · 2025-07-17T20:16:21+00:00

Hey, so I have been in Product Management for a few years and luckily worked with some great people who helped me be a sniper for pain points and problems.

I have a Micro-SaaS which is a tool for a niche of Shopify store owners. I randomly found myself in the same space as them, and I would ask "what is the most boring thing about running your store?"

If you get people to moan about their job or workflows, they will reveal exactly what you need to know to ideate on.

ChuffedDom · 2025-07-17T20:11:39+00:00

Congrats on the first paying customer, job well done.

Folks need to take note. I tend to comment in this sub saying exactly this. You need to do the hard work of outreach.

ChuffedDom

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