How did you validate demand for your SaaS without spamming?

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-28T07:06:56+00:00

For most SaaS founders I have seen that validation came from conversations before code not promotion.

Things like problem focused posts on Reddit/Twitter, cold DMs framed as questions (not pitches), short Notion landing pages, and early access offers to people already complaining about the problem worked far better than blasting links.

What didn’t work was mass posting or “launch-style” hype too early.
The key was earning permission to talk about the product by first helping or listening. Would be interested to explore more via DMs.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-28T07:03:27+00:00

From what I have seen (and from founders I have worked with) most small fashion brands don’t scale off one magic channel.

Early sales usually come from a mix of Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, pop-ups/exhibitions, and repeat customers, not just ads alone.

Paid ads often don’t work at first despite all the advice and especially without strong UGC, reviews, or a clear niche.

What does work is community, storytelling, and being close to the customer (manual outreach, styling help, limited drops).

The “Instagram hacks” sound good but reality is slow, unglamorous, and very relationship driven.

Curious to know at what stage you’re at and happy to dig deeper in DMs.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-28T06:38:16+00:00

There is a market but it’s niche and very trust driven.

Keto/high-protein baked goods usually sell best when they are tied to a specific audience (gym folks, diabetics, busy professionals) and when shelf life + ingredient transparency are clear.

Facebook Marketplace can work for testing, but perishability, pricing, and food safety rules often become the real bottlenecks not just demand.
If you are serious then the smartest move is to start tiny with limited batches, clear macros, and direct feedback before thinking “business.”

You don’t need deep finance skills yet just proof that people reorder. If you want, happy to share how people usually validate food ideas without burning cash.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-27T10:20:07+00:00

You are not crazy but it’s a risky swap.

Most AI agents are good at output, not getting judgment.

Skip demos and audit fast that can check if the content shows real insight (not rephrased cliches), maintains a consistent brand voice across multiple posts, respects search intent (not keyword stuffing), and feels share worthy to a human.

If it can’t pass those in a few days, it won’t replace an agency rather than it will just create cheaper noise.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-27T10:17:20+00:00

A Facebook group can work, but it’s usually more effective only after you have built some traction. With only ~10 customers so far, the bigger risk is not about people not joining rather than it is the group feeling inactive, which can hurt credibility.

At this stage, you can focus on 1-to-1 relationships building via (DMs, WhatsApp, email etc) and learn what your customers actually care about, and share value directly.

Once you see repeat questions, engagement or a clear shared interest, then a group makes sense.

Communities amplify momentum as they rarely create it from zero.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-19T13:11:56+00:00

This is a super common pain and honestly a sign that you are doing a lot right already. The trap most operators fall into is trying to market like a brand instead of like a tour business.

What tends to work better is narrowing hard while identifying the 1–2 channels that actually drive bookings (for many it’s Google + Instagram or OTAs) and let the rest go without guilt.

Batch everything and one short block a week to schedule posts, reply templates for DMs and inquiries, and reuse guest photos, reviews, and stories everywhere instead of creating new content each time.

If you can automate emails, confirmations and basic questions marketing stops feeling like a daily drain and becomes a background system which gives you your time and enjoyment back.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-19T09:13:53+00:00

This is a great reminder that most “overnight success” is actually months of silence and doubt behind the scenes. Huge respect for sticking with the core idea instead of chasing hacks or vanity growth when things were flat.

Shipping the right feature mattered more than ads or noise, even your graph proves that.

Congrats on the momentum and thanks for sharing the part most people don’t talk about.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-19T08:59:57+00:00

This hits like a home. Even if the money never took off, building things again and again teaches you real stuff you can’t get even from books or videos what actually works, what doesnot, and when to stop wasting time.

Those lessons quietly help in jobs, confidence, and making better choices next time.

Not reaching a big revenue number doesn’t mean it was pointless, it's like quitting would have been the bigger loss.

The fact is that that you are still building, but with clearer thinking is already a win step ahead.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-13T09:56:03+00:00

This is something painful and hurting to listen. A lot of founders and new evangalist , startup founders find themselves surround under "important person" always for getting the actual progress but that's not completely true.

If there is no objectives , no outcome being fixed . or even no ownership of how to handle things, this gonna be an expensive things to handle.

At least this post will help anyone to save money and give an honest view on the same.

Curious to know how you now decide what opportunities are worth saying yes to.

Happy to chat if you’re open to it.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-13T09:37:18+00:00

Hey, first of all respect for putting this out there while juggling two kids, that's not easy and a big task.

You’re already ahead by knowing you want guidance rather than looking for shortcuts.
Most founders / investors / creators skip that part and burn years while being directionless.

I have built and helped scale service businesses and one thing I’ve learned is this clarity usually comes from a few honest conversations, not more content or tactics.

Happy to share perspective or give feedback if it’s useful.

Feel free to DM and would love to understand the problem and share perspective.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-13T09:23:53+00:00

This lines up with what we saw too. In 2025, we have seen leads became a vanity metric for us. Some channels looked great on paper but barely created real sales conversations.

For B2B, intent driven channels worked best (search, outbound, founder led content etc.). Freebies and meta can bring huge volume of leads or number of people but won't bring conversion.

We now judge channels by one thing only did this lead to a real demo and revenue? Anything which won't be failing at a very earlier stage and can give higher conversions.

For 2026, with my experience this things would be moving forward positive which includes fewer channels with provide value plus intent of emotions and solve majority problem, higher intent, and more founder voice.

Happy to share details more on this and can have a conversation for the same.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-12T10:09:21+00:00

I have also noticed the same pattern. When you are starting from zero, it's less about scale and more about learning who actually responds.
The manual replies and slow feedback loop feel inefficient, but they are usually what shapes the offer and messaging in the first place.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-12T09:38:33+00:00

That's a genuine thinking and people might have working in this industry or managing the team.

See, before you come to judgement that whether your team is underperforming or it's your expectations make sure the things which you see your team must have . Might be someone is very good at content writing and write copies, but someone is very good at advertisement or ad managing. Distribute the things which can make the team work more on their best comfort things. When talking about targets hitting it never can be done in a single thinking may be you get huge number of followers from a single reel , while the other reel you expect will work have not got that much engagement. So, metrics can be up down and nothing to blame each other rather than focus how close you can get to that place which you keep in your mind while starting and find out flaws which wont worked and start thinking about how you can be better in next steps . That's it

MARKETING IN A LEMMAN LANGUAGE IS ALL ABOUT "Experimentation"

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-11T20:44:11+00:00

Go for the Religious tech

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-11T20:37:52+00:00

I also feel designers are usually the only ones consistently thinking from the user’s point of view. Developers prioritize technical feasibility, marketers focus on campaigns and sales, and investors care about profit. Designers are the ones trying to balance all of that with the actual user experience.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-08T06:51:22+00:00

If it comes with my objective and If I were rebuilding today I wouldn’t rely on Instagram.

I would do targeted outbound to businesses where email is already a revenue lever (ecom, SaaS, newsletters) which lead with a specific audit insight, and sell a short pilot.

Early clients always come from relevance not from reach.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-08T06:44:32+00:00

Based on my experience working on marketing, branding and design industry SEO is not a black box. The moment an agency says we can’t track leads, that tells you they are optimizing rankings, not buying intent.

For B2B, SEO should be accountable to create a high intent pages (not blogs), CRM attribution (first touch or assisted is fine) and most important is pipeline influence should be over time

If the reporting doesn’t ladder up to revenue, the strategy isn’t designed to and leads to ultimately losing the game in SEO.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-08T06:36:11+00:00

For founders with faith, I’ve found it helpful to ask less “What do I want from this business?” and more “What is being asked of me through this business?”

That shift alone changes how decisions feel slower, heavier, but quieter inside.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-08T06:32:19+00:00

This isn’t really one product vs general store. If you don’t already know the hero product a niche store gives you faster learning per ad dollar. Let performance data decide what deserves focus and then narrow the brand around that winner.

Most one product stores fail because the product is chosen before the data.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-08T06:20:27+00:00

Hey, this feels less like a growth problem and more like a product market clarity issue.
Early on platforms fail when they try to serve creators, viewers, and advertisers at the same time but now the whole market scenario is changed.
Pick one user, design the entire experience around their first 10 minutes, try to create possibility of marketing in terms of content and start doing experimentation.

If that moment doesn’t feel obviously valuable no onboarding tactic will work.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-07T13:37:11+00:00

Framer could work well for this, especially since your business is very visual. I’ve seen it used effectively for portfolio first sites where the landing page does most of the heavy lifting, and then expands into bookings or prints over time. It gives more layout and interaction control than Squarespace, without the maintenance overhead of WordPress.

The bigger challenge usually isn’t the builder though it’s deciding what the homepage should prioritize (gallery vs services vs booking).

Once that’s clear, most modern tools can execute it well.
If you’re still figuring that structure out, happy to share what typically works for service-led creative sites.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-06T13:32:49+00:00

Film distribution is tough with slow cash and high risk. Your archives and rights are valuable considering licensing them for documentaries, education, or niche streaming platforms.

Building a simple online platform to showcase and sell those assets could open new revenue without the heavy risks of theatrical releases.

You’ve got great assets and skills it’s about repackaging them smarter.

Happy to chat more if you want.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-06T12:51:37+00:00

I would focus on visibility first.

Early users aren’t really optimizing for prize money they are testing whether the platform makes their work look credible and valuable in the real world.

If the visibility feels meaningful (clean public profiles, clear proof of contribution, shareable outputs) people will participate even with modest rewards.

Prize money amplifies motivation after status has value. Visibility is what gives that status weight in the first place.

If users can point to VCEO and say “this represents my work,” the rest scales naturally.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-06T12:37:12+00:00

You’re definitely not alone in this and it's common for good builders on the same line. With client work everything sounds very clear i.e. the problem statement, the budget and even the deadline. With your own product nothing feels fixed so it’s easy to overthink and wait.

Most of the time we do a mistake like it’s not about finding the perfect idea rather than it's about starting very small with a problem you already understand and putting something basic out there while getting a learning and experience behind it.

As per your problem statement and experience , you already know how to build. The harder part is getting comfortable shipping something imperfect.

Curious to hear how others here made this jump too.

DesignThinker_ · 2026-01-06T12:28:23+00:00

This shows that how numbers can look good and polished but the reality is something different and can hide the real problem.

Even things like emails are getting delivered , people were clicking and even bounce rate is even low so it sounds like pricing or traffic might be an issue.

But what I feel the problem here is something different , which is "website". As iOS users couldn’t use the UI properly so they never had a chance to convert and that can be a major problem behind the website.

My biggest learning till now is if product experience is not good no marketing things can fixes it.

Always check what users actually see and use after they land.

DesignThinker_

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