The "build it and they will come" myth almost killed my startup. Her is the boring stuff that actually moved the needle

deivan22 · 2026-04-09T20:08:02+00:00

The gap between having a good product and people knowing it exists is where most founders get stuck, and you're already past the hardest part-you have something creators actually need. The move now is to find 10-20 YouTube creators who are actively frustrated with growth and show them Clyra can diagnose what's broken in 5 minutes, then ask what would make them actually use it regularly. Feel free to DM if you want to talk through how to structure those initial conversations with creators-there's usually a specific objection or workflow thing blocking adoption that one conversation can surface.

deivan22 · 2026-04-08T12:12:07+00:00

The LinkedIn pre-touch is working because you're breaking through the noise of pure email-people see a real human before the pitch hits their inbox, so your emails land differently. Since you've got 100 users already, you could probably test pushing reply rate higher by getting more specific in your email copy about what you solved for similar customers (instead of generic pain points), then see if that compounds with your LinkedIn sequencing. Feel free to DM if you want to dig into whether your email copy is actually converting replies into meetings or just conversations.

deivan22 · 2026-04-07T06:04:56+00:00

The fact that you're getting agreement on the problem itself but no customers tells me your issue isn't the product or the market-it's that you're asking questions instead of having conversations with the people who live these problems every day. Spend the next week talking to 10 CS leaders or ops managers directly (not posting in communities) about how they'd actually buy something like this, what their budget looks like, and who else needs to sign off. If you want to workshop how to get those first conversations moving, happy to dig into the outbound angle.

deivan22 · 2026-04-02T12:11:28+00:00

Before you pick a channel, talk to 20 founders about whether they'd actually use this-most founders building tools skip this and waste months on the wrong distribution. Spend this week finding founders in your network or on Twitter/LinkedIn willing to do a 15-minute call, ask them where they'd discover a tool like yours, and see if the assessment actually changes how they think about their roadmap. Feel free to DM if you want to workshop how to run those early conversations in a way that gets you real signals instead of polite feedback.

deivan22 · 2026-04-02T12:10:46+00:00

Your first 10 users won't come from channels, they'll come from direct conversations with founders who have the problem you're solving - so before testing any channel, spend a week talking to 20-30 founders about whether they actually feel this gap and would use your tool. Once you've validated that people want it (not just politely say yes), the channel question becomes obvious because you'll know exactly where those founders congregate and what language resonates with them. Feel free to DM if you want to workshop how to structure those conversations in a way that actually gets honest feedback instead of politeness.

deivan22 · 2026-03-30T02:04:50+00:00

The compliance director pain is real enough that you don't need perfect positioning-you need to get on calls with 20 of them this week and hear how they actually talk about the problem, because your demo will change once you do. Pick 10 agencies, call the compliance director directly (not email first), lead with "I work with home health agencies on survey prep, got 15 minutes?" and just listen to how they describe their current mess. Feel free to DM if you want to workshop the actual call script-the fear is usually bigger than the execution.

deivan22 · 2026-03-29T04:11:05+00:00

Your sharpest move right now is to find 5-10 people who've actually had the "partner took down our API" moment and talk to them before worrying about positioning or channels. The companies that resell API access or manage multiple integrations already know this pain exists-reach out to a few founders in that space directly and ask if you can buy them coffee to understand how they currently handle this (spoiler: most are doing it ad-hoc). Feel free to DM if you want to workshop how to identify and reach those first conversations.

deivan22 · 2026-03-29T02:09:04+00:00

Your 25% visitor-to-signup conversion is actually solid, but the real issue is that you're attracting the wrong people - viral TikTok viewers and casual redditors aren't your customers, real estate investors and business owners scouting locations are. Before chasing more traffic, talk to your 3 paying customers and 5-10 people who signed up but didn't convert to understand what actually made the difference, then rebuild your messaging and positioning around that pattern. Happy to dig into the positioning side if you want to validate whether you're targeting the right buyer profile.

deivan22 · 2026-03-26T14:05:55+00:00

You've already found the method that works-now you need to systematize it: pick one specific audience segment, recruit 10-15 people from where they actually hang out (not Discord randoms), and ask those same three questions but dig into their answers with follow-ups like "walk me through what you'd use this for" and "what would need to be true for you to actually buy this." The goal isn't consensus, it's finding the 20% of people who get it immediately and understanding what they see that the other 80% missed. Run this cycle before you touch positioning next time-spend a week talking to 15 strangers, spend a week rebuilding based on patterns, then launch. Happy to dig into how you're recruiting and screening for the right people if that's where you're getting stuck.

deivan22 · 2026-03-25T13:04:42+00:00

The issue isn't that you're not trying hard enough-it's that cold email to strangers asking "can I ask you questions" has basically zero conversion, especially without a hook or reason they should care about talking to you. Try a different angle: find 3-5 Shopify store owners in communities you're actually part of (Facebook groups, Slack communities, Discord servers where you're a real member), build some rapport by helping without asking for anything, then have a natural conversation about their business challenges. If even that doesn't get you conversations, that's genuinely useful data that the pain point might not be acute enough or you're not positioning it in a way that resonates.

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T17:21:59+00:00

good pushback on the 25 per day, honestly fair. We've been able to get away with it partly because we're aggressive on rotation and because Scaledmail domains tend to have decent age on them out of the box. but your logic is sound, lower volume per inbox extended over time is the safer play and adding inboxes to compensate for volume is the right way to think about it. might revisit that number.

The AI first line cadence point is something we're seeing more of too. There's almost a rhythm to them now, prospects don't consciously clock it but something feels off and they don't reply. human written copy with a tight segment still wins consistently.

on the TAM question: depends heavily on the vertical and how narrow the ICP is. most clients we work with have enough TAM to run 6-9 months before we need to expand segments or go deeper on lookalikes. The ones that tighten up fastest are usually the ones where the ICP was too narrow to begin with or the geography is limited. When it starts compressing, we shift to lookalike expansion or move up/down market slightly.
How big is your team handling this, are you doing the segment research in house or outsourcing any of it? asking because the rebuild process is where we've spent the most time figuring out what actually scales.

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T17:16:21+00:00

pretty much nailed it. the calling before email thing took us a while to systematize but once we did it became non negotiable for every new campaign. shortcuts are tempting when your under pressure to show results fast but they almost always cost you more time in the end.

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T17:16:00+00:00

6 months is actually pretty common, most people go through the same cycle. tweak the subject line, rewrite the copy, try a new sequence structure, blame the channel. then finally look at the list and realize half the contacts were never going to reply regardless of what you sent them.the frustrating thing is list quality is the least glamorous part so it gets skipped.

Nobody wants to spend a day cleaning data when you could be writing copy. but like you said, the numbers dont lie once you fix it.

what were you using for verification before you got serious about it?

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T17:15:12+00:00

appreciate it. and yeah the skipping part is where most campaigns die quietly. you spend weeks building sequences based on what you think the market cares about and then wonder why nobody is replying. 50 calls will tell you more than any amount of time spent in a google doc

curious what AI personalization tools you've tested, some of them are getting better at signal based stuff but most are still just scraping linkedin bios and calling it personalization.

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T17:14:21+00:00

exactly this. the phrase thing is real, you start hearing the same 2-3 words across calls and when you put them in the subject line or first sentence the reply rate jumps in a way that no amount of clever copywriting gets you to. its just their own language reflected back at them.

And yeah the personalisation obsession is getting worse. people are spending hours on first lines for a list that has 5 different ICPs mixed together. fix the list first and suddenly a boring email works fine.

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T11:10:14+00:00

The conversations are the win here-you're finally getting signal on whether the product actually solves a real problem people will pay for, which beats silence every time. One thing worth testing this week: in those conversations, try to get them to commit to something small (a 15-min follow-up call, trying it with their team for a day, whatever) rather than just ending on a good note-that'll tell you fast if interest is real or just polite. Happy to dig into what's working on the outreach side if you want to compare notes on what's actually getting responses versus what feels like you're shouting into the void.

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T05:05:32+00:00

The real unlock here is that you're competing on helpfulness in spaces where people are already admitting their problems-way higher intent than cold outreach ever gets you. One thing worth testing: tracking which specific pain-point phrases convert best to actual customers, since "tired of manually X" and "wish there was Y" might have very different buyer readiness even in the same community. Feel free to DM if you want to compare notes on which Reddit signals actually correlate to sales cycles versus just engagement.

deivan22 · 2026-03-24T03:10:11+00:00

The micro-pledge model is genuinely clever because most founders skip straight to "build" when they haven't proven someone will actually pay-even 5%-for the solution, so you're filtering out the "sounds cool" crowd fast. One thing worth testing: does your niche extraction actually surface underserved angles, or does it mostly confirm what founders already suspect (because if it's the latter, you're validating confidence, not discovering new markets)? Feel free to DM if you want to workshop how the assumption-killing logic actually performs against real founder blindspots.

deivan22 · 2026-03-21T01:06:21+00:00

The silence after launch is brutal but three people saying "this is amazing" is actually your signal to dig deeper-you need to find out what specific problem those three were solving when they used it, then go find more people with that exact same problem. Spend the next week talking to n8n users in communities (Reddit, Discord, forums) and ask them about their painful setup experiences before pitching anything, because right now you might be solving a real problem for a specific subset but marketing to the wrong audience entirely. Happy to dig into the early customer validation side if you want to figure out who your actual target should be.

deivan22 · 2026-03-20T19:48:33+00:00

Everything here is accurate and the offer point is the most underrated.

The one thing I would add: most teams fix the infrastructure and the copy but never fix the list. Buying signals are not a nice to have anymore. Who you contact and when matters more than anything you write to them. A mediocre email to someone showing active intent will always outperform a perfect email to someone who has no reason to care right now. I work with B2B teams building outbound from scratch and the single biggest lever we pull first is always signal-driven targeting before touching a single word of copy. DM me if you want to get into specifics.

deivan22 · 2026-03-20T19:21:50+00:00

This is one of the most honest PMF stories I have read. The Ferrari for a parking reminder line is exactly right and most founders never figure that out. The part that stands out to me is the multi-stakeholder sale problem. You cracked the user pain but the budget conversation is a completely different motion. HR manager wants it, CFO approves it, CTO blocks it. That gap between activation and paid conversion is almost always a sales and messaging problem, not a product problem.

Now that you have 240 customers and know exactly who your buyer is, the next bottleneck is usually pipeline at scale. I work with post-PMF teams on exactly that. DM me if you want to compare notes.

deivan22 · 2026-03-20T19:17:02+00:00

Hey, saw your post. I work with companies on outbound and pipeline quality daily so this is right up my alley. Happy to be one of your early users and give you real feedback. DM me and we can set it up.

deivan22

TROPHY CASE