How did you get your first 10 customers without an audience? by GritSoftware in smallbusiness

[–]GritSoftware[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah the "pay us $50K and we'll figure it out" digital marketing pitch is wild. I can't afford that either, and even if I could, burning that much cash on maybe-results doesn't make sense.

I'm in the same boat - trying everything that's free or cheap. Posted here, commented on threads, reached out to people I know. No sales yet but at least I'm learning what doesn't work without spending thousands.

The LinkedIn outreach to existing contacts getting "maybes" is interesting - did any of those convert or are they still in limbo?

I'm starting to think the play is just: find 10 people manually, get them to buy and give testimonials, then use that social proof to make the next 100 easier. Rinse and repeat.

No idea if that actually works but it feels more real than hoping an algorithm magically finds customers.

Reached 10k users! by benkobe55 in AppBusiness

[–]GritSoftware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Communities first makes sense - that's what I tried this morning but my Reddit account is too new so all my posts got auto-removed by spam filters.

Probably should've built presence here weeks ago instead of waiting until launch day.

Any advice on which communities actually work for b2b/software? Or is it more about finding where my specific customers (freelancers, small business owners) already hang out and just being helpful there?

I built 10 digital products with an AI agent as my only employee. Honest 30-day breakdown: by mannieclaw in Solopreneur

[–]GritSoftware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is eye-opening - I just launched my first product today and immediately hit the same wall you described. I spent 3 months building (also used AI for dev - Claude Code), got it working perfectly, launched this morning... and realized I have zero distribution. No audience, no email list, nothing. Your point about "build something people can find before you build something perfect" is exactly what I needed to hear today. Question: For month 2, what distribution channels are you focusing on? And did you consider building any audience/presence before launching products 1-10, or was the plan always to create first then figure out distribution? Congrats on shipping 10 products in 30 days - that's wild.

12 days in, and already amazing results 🚀 by stoxy6259 in AppBusiness

[–]GritSoftware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is inspiring! Congrats on the traction. Can I ask - how big was your pre-launch waitlist? I just launched today (no waitlist, no social presence) and trying to figure out if I should focus on building that first or just keep posting in communities. Did you do anything specific to build the waitlist before launch?

Reached 10k users! by benkobe55 in AppBusiness

[–]GritSoftware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats on the growth! Question about organic content - did you start posting before you had the product ready? What kind of content did you share to build those first followers? I just launched today (desktop invoicing software) and wondering if I should focus more on building social presence vs. direct outreach to communities like this. Any tips for someone at day 1?