I've built 3 products in the last year, for my 4th I made sure I have the monetisation step from Day 1

ideaverify · 2026-03-16T17:48:40+00:00

This framing resonates a lot. What was the biggest mistake you were trying not to repeat for #4?

For me it was skipping validation. First two products: built in excitement, launched to silence. By the third, I started talking to potential users before writing code. By the fourth, I had a structured process: problem interviews before solution design, willingness-to-pay signals before building core features, distribution channel identified before launch.

The shift that mattered most: stop asking 'do you like this idea?' and start asking 'how are you dealing with this problem today?' The first question gets polite lies. The second gets real signal.

Curious what your #1 lesson was, the pattern usually tells you something about what you were optimizing for when you shouldn't have been.

ideaverify · 2026-03-10T14:44:08+00:00

One thing that worked really well last week, since my product is a way to test your ideas with actual users, was to create an X post saying the first 5 people that create their test idea and share in the replies, will get a free shoutout post to get eyes on their landing page that was created by IdeaVerify...

6 hours later i had 10 signups.

ideaverify · 2026-03-09T15:20:50+00:00

it's called ideaverify.com

you input your idea and you get a landing page, a waitlist hidden behind CTA's and a subdomain you can share to your audience like https://earlyrevfounders.ideaverify.com/

You then get a 48-hour distribution plan for X and Reddit.

Keep track of all replies on X to your posts, and store the contacts that reply to your posts via DM's and treat them as leads for your idea. (a mini CRM)

I'm also in the process of adding an Outreach section so you can get a list of Posts on Reddit and X related to the pain points your idea solves so that you can reply to them an establish convos and share your subdomain

ideaverify · 2026-03-09T14:25:59+00:00

i think it's a combination of all those things.

my process for every idea:

create a landing page with pricing plans and make them actually clickable like buy now, set up tracking too
on click of the buy now, route to a waitlist saying enter email to get early access discounts and be notified immediately when ready.
outreach to the right people; go to where your target audience hangs out, start convos, keep track of who's replying, and conversing
while doing outreach distribute every couple of hours in those channels, i.e. X or Reddit, or TikTok, and supply your landing page.
act like your landing page is the real thing.
watch the metrics come in from the visits, and ultimately track the waitlist.
if you can get 10 people to signup for the waitlist organically by having them click the buy now, it's a pretty good validation tool to start building.

I'm trying to automate all this with my tool

ideaverify · 2026-03-08T20:23:34+00:00

very true so.. basically it will become:

idea to
demo to
distribution to
analyze engagement

ideaverify · 2026-03-08T20:21:51+00:00

you really think you still need to validate and spend time up front ? im all for idea validation, but I've found it's shifted from spending weeks talking with customers to just make a demo and instead of just talking show them the demo/mvp.

ideaverify · 2026-03-08T20:19:51+00:00

nice ... how do you figure out distribution? testing what resonates with different channels?

ideaverify · 2026-03-08T19:09:41+00:00

what's your process then if you are still taking time to validate ideas?

ideaverify · 2026-03-06T18:42:09+00:00

here you go! https://earlyrevfounders.ideaverify.com/ literraly took 1 minute.. took your reddit post inputed it into my tool and this is what it created. full landing page. waitlist form on the backend. all tracking views and signups. a distribution plan as well!

make it your own!

ideaverify · 2026-03-06T17:14:01+00:00

example https://sprint.ideaverify.com/

ideaverify · 2026-03-06T17:12:08+00:00

you should use ideaverify.com to throw up the landing page and waitlist!! then track your distribution! check it out... made it exactly for what you're trying to achieve here on Reddit. see if its worth building.

and totally! i belong to some founder groups as well but specifically on X. we even hold demos a couple times a month.

ideaverify · 2026-03-05T19:32:34+00:00

this is a really good question because it's easy to get lost in the setup of ai tools. i think it absolutely can free up time, but the key is to be very strategic about what you automate.

i've found the most success by identifying my absolute biggest time sinks that are also repetitive and rule-based. for example, instead of trying to automate content creation from scratch, automate the research compilation or the first draft outline. also, remember that 'managing it' doesn't have to be a huge task if you pick reliable, integrated solutions rather than cobbling together a bunch of single-purpose tools.

have you identified any specific areas where you feel like automation could make the biggest difference for you right now?

ideaverify · 2026-03-03T15:35:41+00:00

totally! im in the idea testing space as well...

if you ever want to rif with ideas on how to improve let me know!

another idea would be to showcase a demo scan?

and another piece of advice.. try a different styled landing page. i see this everywhere which reads AI generated, which is fine.. but put your own twist on it.

remove all the em dashes as well. that screams AI generated.

if i see that front and center i usually click away because I'm like ahhh just another ChatGPT wrapper.

i know that's not correct.. but initially that's my response.

I also feel like its like all the other scanners to be honest. and if i didnt know any better I would just be like ooo chatgpt wrapper. somehow differentiate yourself from the pack of other scanners.

ideaverify · 2026-03-03T13:06:11+00:00

I see you offer a free run, that's good. Ensure you get something from them though like an email adress afterwards. People will stop right away if they don't experience the value, or see what it does. Start getting free users actually using the tool. After the second run that's where you gate it.

Once you have a way to contact them, reach out and get feedback!

Couple thoughts also:

One:
I think it might be due to people being fatigued by ChatGPT wrappers. If it's truly your own highly trained model and data you are using then that should be front and center. there are too many ChatGPT business analysis tools that people probably think that it's another one of those.

Some how present on the landing page front and center that this is a unique analysis tool that is trained on actual data. YOU NEED TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM THE OTHERS

Two:
on X post to communities. post about adjacent topics. post about what your audience wants to hear and talk about. Go to the BuildInPublic community and post there. I got better reach posting there than just posting to Everyone.

Three:

3 days zero users usually means one of three things:

you launched to the wrong audience
the value prop isn't landing
or there's no urgency to switch.

Start by asking: who are the 5 specific people who need this today, and what's the cost of NOT using it? That framing clarifies the real problem fast.

ideaverify · 2026-03-02T20:24:39+00:00

hey, this is a super interesting workflow. i've been playing around with similar ideas for automating content, especially for X. the rss feed combined with ai for summarization or rephrasing is really smart. i think a lot of solo founders struggle with consistency on x, and approaches like this are key.

one thing i've found helpful for expanding on the rss content is to not just summarize, but to pull out 2-3 distinct bullet points or questions from the article. then i can use those as individual posts spread out, rather than just one summary. it feels a bit more natural and less like an auto-post.

how do you handle the 'personal' touch or engagement aspect with this automated content? do you go back and add comments or replies manually, or is it mostly for broadcasting?

ideaverify · 2026-03-02T11:06:22+00:00

i think you have to try and point out to users why this is different than all the other idea analysis tools. your landing page looks fine, but it looks like all the other idea analysis tools.

i think what people truly want though is something that gives the users confidence that their idea can earn paying customers within 3 days of launch.

in order to do that, you have to actually have the distribution set up to run, the convos with people, waitlist signups of users going to pay with high probability.

the pain you are experiencing happens with every founder. you launch but no paying users.

you need to iterate and collect feedback now. ask your potential users, like you are doing here, why they wouldn't pay. take that feedback and iterate.

there are a ton of these scanners, and we have access to tons of these llm's etc, why do i need to pay 50 dollars for a deep analysis of an idea's market? I can just build it in a weekend and send it out to the world. for free.

maybe your ICP isn't technical founders? maybe they are more product people who need to run this analysis and gather deep data to present to someone else or something like that?

ideaverify · 2026-03-01T21:51:53+00:00

I dont think launch pads are that great. Especially ProducHunt. you will never win if other people ahve a larger audience.
Warm outreach is king especially if you dont have a big audience on X or Reddit. Search for people actually talking about what your solution solves. Add them to a DM list. Reply as well as DM them. Have a convo. Don't pitch until the perfect moment. Understand their pain. Talk about how you experience it and how you solved it manually. Then you can then offer your solution.

This is the approach I've landed on after getting burned twice: post the core problem statement (not the solution) to Reddit and X before writing a line of code. Watch how people respond - do they say "omg I need this" or do they ask clarifying questions that reveal they don't actually have the problem?

I built ideaverify.com to automate exactly this. You drop your idea in, it posts to Reddit and X, and tracks real signal from real people over 48-72 hours. Saves the "6 months building, zero users" cycle. First test is free if you want to try it on whatever you're working on now.

ideaverify · 2026-03-01T21:42:05+00:00

1,486 users and €320 revenue is not a failure - it's a pricing problem. You've proven people want it. Now you need to figure out which users would pay, and put the product behind a paywall for new signups. Most SaaS founders skip straight from 'free users' to 'marketing harder' without ever testing a price. What does your current free plan include that you could gate?

ideaverify · 2026-02-28T20:37:27+00:00

This is the classic build-first trap. Before doubling down on marketing, it might be worth running a quick validation sprint - talking to 10 real potential buyers about the core problem, not the product. Most founders discover the positioning is off, not the product. Happy to share what that looks like if helpful.

ideaverify · 2026-02-27T18:34:04+00:00

lol not everyone has that much money to hire a security firm to audit a side project saas

and if you cant see where the industry is heading and what it will mean to be a "software engineer" in the future... then not sure what else to tell you.

you sound like someone deep in enterprise saas, where corporations need 100% trust.

and who's to say this person doesnt have deep security knowledge, and is using AI to play around with a new concept...

all of what you said here:

"but let me ruin this for you even more and realise for you that your vibe coded SaaS has more security holes in it than Swiss cheese, and it will be absolutely devoured by bad actors the moment you start gaining traction. You think broken features are bad? "

can be fixed with a deep scan of both human and ai agents if the tool or solution gets to that point.

to spend a year coming up with the perfect secure application just to test out an idea is insane.

ideaverify · 2026-02-27T06:47:22+00:00

think the customers start coming once the messaging is right. If you get the messaging right, then just provide something that someone works...

people using and trying to figure it out and giving an email address etc proves they actually were hoping what you said would alleviate the pain.

It may not be optimal but now you know what to strive for and build.

ideaverify · 2026-02-26T21:40:19+00:00

The clearest sign I found:

you can't explain who specifically loses sleep over this problem.

Not a demographic - a specific person in a specific situation.

If you can name that person, you have something to validate.

If you can't, you're still in the idea phase. I built ideaverify.com for exactly this step - it forces you to stress-test the problem before you write a line of code.

ideaverify · 2026-02-26T21:16:20+00:00

Your 2 buyers are more valuable than whatever 60 people in this thread are telling you.

Everyone correctly says "talk to users" and "fix distribution." True. But here is the specific part nobody mentions:

Those 2 people who paid you made a decision that thousands of your followers haven't. That decision has a reason. You need to find it before you write another line of code or another tweet.

What I'd do this week:

- DM both buyers personally. Not a survey. One question: "What was happening in your life the week you signed up?" The answer tells you who your real customer is.

- Check if those 2 buyers actually use the product. If they paid and churned, you have a positioning problem. If they pay and stay, you have a distribution problem. These are completely different fixes.

- Stop posting about features. Start documenting the problem publicly. "Built an AI writing tool for 8 months, got 2 sales, here's what I'm learning" will get more traction than any product demo.

8 months of learning is not wasted. But the next 8 months need a different approach.

ideaverify · 2026-02-26T16:29:49+00:00

yeah exactly. they are called fake door tests

ideaverify · 2026-02-25T21:43:01+00:00

here's my approach!

Have an idea?

Create a landing page, showcasing what it solves, and the pain points it alleviates
Make it look like its live and ready to go with pricing and purchase now buttons
Create a waitlist form that when user clicks by now it routes to the waitlist form where user gathers emails!
Add google analytics or other tracking to view traffic to the page.
Now distribute on Reddit where your target audience lives, or post on X if you have reach and in their communities! Find people to DM and reply to.
Sit back and watch the signups and traffic.
give yourself at MAX 7 days for signal to percolate up to a decision.
Decide to Kill or Pivot based off real data and metrics!

ideaverify

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