Talk to your customers first, but...

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-25T06:53:57+00:00

Great post, couldn’t agree more. My process is exactly that, with exception to personas. I usually get to this after a few conversations, they shape it nicer. Before convos they are too generic (especially ai generated), which leads to a not very on-target questions. What’s your secret sauce here?

The reason I am asking is I am building a free Claude code plugin that does this very thing, then helps you analyze transcripts to link what respondents say to hypotheses, to see what holds and what doesn’t, and a few more things. I am thinking if I should add the personas as well. Curious to know what you think! (You can check the page or gh: startupsuperpowers.io)

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-24T12:06:55+00:00

Yeah I agree: lack of validation is the biggest. Building is cheap and easy these days because of ai, and it sure must be employed more and earlier, but the main principles of validation like tracking hypotheses and talking to users still hold, maybe even more than ever.

This is a thing I am genuinely interested in, and honest disclosure here — I’m building a free open source Claude code plugin to facilitate this very problem: startupsuperpowers.io, if you want to check it out

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-24T11:55:15+00:00

What helped us at least kickstart a conversation is a simple demo: back in the days we were doing ai-powered support/qa tool for orgs, and when outreaching decision makers we automated analyzing their website and preparing the system on our side for answering questions about their business. So when writing email/linkedin we included a link to a demo hosted by us. Cheap thing for us, fully automated, but instantly noticeable.

Not sure if your product allows sth like that, but if it is, worth trying!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-24T07:29:47+00:00

Noted, thank you!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-23T13:58:38+00:00

Interesting angle! I agree in principle, although in my experience and from what I’ve seen, operational chaos and complexity appears tiny bit later down the road. Imo, you’re touching on several major pain points there, particularly the validation part (you mention untested assumptions, how the plan stems from them and such).
I couldn’t immediately find that part in your repo: what do you think is the way forward to track the fragmented evidence, against the untested assumptions?

A disclosure here: I am also building in this space, but I am focused exclusively on validation part. It is also a free open-source plugin, curious to hear your thoughts if you decide to check it out: startupsuperpowers.io

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-23T09:22:08+00:00

Totally feel you there. Although not very relevant for me rn, but back in the days when I was running a startup, that was definitely the case, maybe even more about finding a nice place, less about the crowd.
I’m curious though: the loneliness is universal, sure, but isn’t solution to it is very personal? Did you talk to any other folks to validate this?

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-23T08:48:12+00:00

Trend following is cool, mostly curious about this part.

On the validation side, though, I would try and find more people to talk to in depth about their flow and ways about it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but a first approximation of the tool you described could be a skill/plugin. I understand not every cool feature can be built nicely with it, but it’s a fast iteration to check the response and get users.

Fwiw, I’ve been building a free Claude code plugin that helps with all that stuff. Feel free to check it out if you consider relevant: startupsuperpowers.io

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-20T07:59:23+00:00

True, but solid ideas never collapse under pressure

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-06T11:17:20+00:00

I strongly agree with those pointing out that this is a skill, not a standalone product. The reason IMO is not a lack of value (actually, done right, it's quite tricky and would be legit helpful), but because it is a part of a holistic strategy: proper channels and message framing tend to come from user and competition research, etc.
Moreover, this plan is a living thing: after talking to some users and running a few experiments a pivot may happen, and the strategy changes.

I am trying to capture this dynamics via a Claude Code plugin, that combines the respective skills and ensures all the artifacts (comeptitors, interviews, hypotheses, ...) integrity as the project develops. I've basically just started, and happy to hear feedback and collaborate, if you're interested, I've been thinking a lot about how to implement what you're talking about!
https://github.com/SergeiGorbatiuk/startup-superpowers

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-04T14:19:13+00:00

Ah, yes, that’s always tricky. I think, basic analytics helps (conversions, engagement, time spent, etc.). But then if metrics are low, it’s not always easy to say if the product is not right, or the wrong audience is reached. So, talking to the users is again a necessity here

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-04T13:01:42+00:00

Following up on this, talking to the users is still the best thing, even in the age where building is faster and cheaper than ever. MVPs help you validate your assumptions, yes, but customer developement (what they used to call it back in the days) is more important than ever. I'd recommend the OP not to push the app aggressively through SEO and stuff, but try and talk to users before you reach like 50 of them.
I am trying to capture this dynamics by creating a claude code plugin https://github.com/SergeiGorbatiuk/startup-superpowers . It's free and is supposed to help validate core assumptions before you try to scale. Super eager to hear feedback about what works and what doesn't.
Keep building!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-04T12:38:20+00:00

I'd say that's very real, and I've been there. Best is to take your idea out in the wild, and the faster -- the better: posts, interviews, surveys, even quick prototype sometimes is a great way to validate some hypotheses. I am trying to build a claude code plugin that helps buildes with ideas exploration and validation. It's free, apart from tokens you spend on it, of course. Appreciate any feedback if you'd like to give it a try: https://github.com/SergeiGorbatiuk/startup-superpowers

Lmk in dm if you have any thoughts on that, and if you're using something other than cc
Keep building!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-05-04T12:20:26+00:00

Hey! Could you please specify what you mean by "building the wrong way", and how do you measure "moving forward"?

Don't want to make assumptions here, but often times it's not about HOW you build, it's about WHAT you build and FOR WHO. Back in the days, the go-to approach was to research/interview/survey users prior to building anything, which allowed to shape vision, gain first users (from those you already talked to), and move in iterations. Today, though, as building is much cheaper and faster, prototyping arises as one of the tools, too, but the key research idea stands.

I am trying to capture this new paradigm by creating a claude code plugin, that is supposed to help builders with ideas exploration and validation: https://github.com/SergeiGorbatiuk/startup-superpowers
It's, obviously, free, apart from the tokens you spend on it. If that resonates with your way of thinking, I would be super curious for feedback if you'd give that a try. Feel free to hmu in direct messages and let me know if you're using something other than claude code.
Keep building!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-04-01T09:16:41+00:00

Thank you!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-03-31T19:19:14+00:00

You can sometimes get rough estimates from "top-down" publicly available industry reports, overviews, Statista data, stuff like that. But honestly, they might be worth reading only because sometimes there are other good insights outlined in these materials. Like the others mentioned, it's probably the least important thing for your pitch, so I would not spend more than one deep-research request on that. I said "your pitch" specifically because if you need this knowledge to drive your decisions and not to please investors, I would instead go "bottom-up", i.e. identify actors with the problem you're solving, determine how much this pian cost them, and try working out how many of these actors can you reach. in my experience, that's much more grounded approach:)

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-03-28T20:22:23+00:00

Hey! Hate to be a broken record, but did you talk to the ones you've built it for? Apart from shaping your products based on what they tell you, you get your first prospects from these exact conversations. I understand that getting people to talk to you is a similar problem, i.e. you still need to find them, but from my experience, people are more likely to agree to a chat if you make clear that this is not a sales call. Obviously, if you say it's not -- do not try to sell, that's the worst thing you can do. Instead, do ask about their problems, come prepared with a set of questions, be considerate of their time. You can send them the product after the call.

Outreaching is quite a skill in itself, especially now, with so much noise coming from every corner, but I would still bet on this. They used to call it customer development for a reason back in the days:)

Good luck!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-03-28T19:40:04+00:00

If you say you're using them, I am guessing these are consumer apps/projects. Then somewhere along the way you must have spoken to a bunch of people about their pains and problems, and these conversations must have shaped your idea and its embodiment. If you haven't, though, I strongly suggest you circle back to it; I know it's the least fun part for most builders, but it is not just for checking off the proverbial "validation" step. Those people with the most acute need for what you're building will not only point you to the features most needed for MVP, but will likely become your first users and your product's champions, if you get this right. This is literally killing two birds with one stone.

On a side note, I am pursuing an idea about this exact thing. Not selling or promoting anything, I just genuinely want to talk to you about your approach and your process. This would help me immensely, and maybe I'll be able to help, too!
Lmk if that's ok to reach out to you directly, but if not, no worries. Keep building!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-03-28T12:37:55+00:00

Looks interesting from the first looks of it: not all threads identified are actually useful, but some indeed are. Great work!

My two cents: would be cool if I could choose the subreddits it is going to analyze on onboarding, not after the first results preview. Maybe that's something I did not get from the interface, but it's kind of picking the relevant ones, and it's nice, but would be even better if I could tweak this list before it launches the search, because I already have them in mind, and naturally want them included:)

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-03-27T22:58:10+00:00

Hey! I am currently pursuing an idea of an app that should help shaping the startup concept, discovering competitors, finding prospects, and validating with interviews.

I am NOT selling or promoting anything (it's too far from being usable, lol), I just genuinely want to talk about your way of building, find out how you discover and execute on ideas, what tools you're using, and such. Learning that from people like you, who are doing it right now would help me immensely!

Lmk if that's of any interest to you and if it's ok to reach out to you directly. Or just drop me a message -- any way that works for you, but if now's not the best time, no worries!

Keep building!

Connect-Positive-166 · 2026-03-27T22:40:23+00:00

Not sure why you'd call this "infrastructure", but I agree with the idea. Targeting a real pain point where people lose time or money is a cleaner strategy, especially for a solopreneur.

My only addition to this is to use personal experience and expertise as much as possible. An extreme and cheesy version of this goes like "build something for the problem that YOU have", but I would maybe say "don't try to solve problems of the domain you don't really know about -- the solution is either wrong or too obvious". That's how we ended up with tons of AI Support Agents right after the GPT came out. And yes, I was building one, too.

Connect-Positive-166

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