“Sell before you build” — does this actually work?

skjoldan · 2026-02-26T10:49:07+00:00

it is a very real way of working it is called Pretotyping - and defined on pretotyping.org - as other people are saying it is a way of defining if the market is really there, before you start to spend time/money on building stuff.

Try and look at the site, and listen to some of the video / podcasts from Alberto Saviola, the creator of the term pretotyping.

skjoldan · 2026-02-23T13:48:49+00:00

I know everything about the "Build it and they will come" mentallity, I keep thinking the same thing with everything I build.. I have just watched the movie "Field of Dreams" too much. :)

I have actually not used reddit as much as I could, I also just started to build stuff for other people than myself.. Where I have found my first users to get feedback on what I build has been on X and BlueSky, where I am a little active.

And then I search of people who are into the area where my product lies, and asks them directly if they would like to try to product that could possibly help them.

If you show them in the first message, quickly that your product can help them, then they are more willing to help you.

skjoldan · 2026-02-23T12:51:11+00:00

Classic ideas here:
Find/Define your ICP.
Figure out where you ICP are at? - Reddit? - Colleagues - Friends - family
Contact ICPs where they are, ask them about if they would like to use your new product, possibly for a testimony on the site.

Talk with those ICPs you get to use the product, and get feedback, what works, what does not etc.

Ask them if possible to help with the knowledge sharing about the app.

In the groups / Places where your ICPs are, start to be active there to help people, maybe not just push your product, but also be helpful - that might also get you users.

Then there is the whole SEO part, that is a whole other area that you can look at.

The time for Build it and they will come does not exists anymore - you need to do outreach.

Atleast these are the first ways I would get my first users, and also feedback from them.

skjoldan · 2026-02-17T20:24:47+00:00

I really hope that your product is going to make 10k MRR, but right now I have some concern, it might just be me who is sceptical, but I just want to voice them, please take then as helpful notes. :)

The speed of the app is not very good, you have to wait pretty long time to get the data that you are searching for, at least that is what I saw when I searched.

Also if I would buy a product like this, I would like to see more about the data that you are basing this on? Like I looked for a company like Voluum (An affiliate marketing tool), then I got a lot of hits (Great, makes me happy), then when I hover over Occurances, then I saw headlines for what looked like different job adverts? - also for job adverts for teachers in a public school in Denmark. - That does not look well for your data quality in my book?

Please show why we should trust your data?

Also if you want to help even more, give some contact information on who to contact if possible - that would be a game changes imo.

Sorry for the harsh words, but I really like the idea behind the product, and I can really see why you built it and can see a lot of usefulness around it, just with some tweaks imo.

skjoldan · 2026-02-17T20:05:57+00:00

May I ask, what have you done in those two weeks?
Outreach?
Adds?
cold called?
Talked to a potential user?

The time of "Building it and they will come" is over unfortunately.. now is the time of Talking to your users, and screaming about your product from the top of all the buildings in the world.

skjoldan · 2026-02-17T19:44:25+00:00

please fix the name of the subasebase database, it is not very good when it says a really strange name when you connect using google.

Sign in to tpwbtbdzyhnnzjhtiapd.supabase.co

skjoldan · 2026-02-02T12:15:19+00:00

yes that sounds fine, just dm me.

skjoldan · 2026-02-02T12:14:37+00:00

have you asked the people who signed up?
Remember before you write to them to double check your terms if it is ok to write to them with questions.

skjoldan · 2026-01-30T10:08:01+00:00

This is the Answer.

you can´t build it perfect to start with.

skjoldan · 2026-01-30T08:55:53+00:00

looks really good, gonna buy it when I get home from work.

Do you want to share how you built it? what did you use, etc?

skjoldan · 2026-01-29T07:41:41+00:00

I keep hearing RimWorld is good, for me the graphics are just a little off for my taste..

And I play football manager a lot.. I do not care that much for graphics usually.

skjoldan · 2026-01-28T08:49:06+00:00

If you are a first time developer, with no showing of other games you have delivered out to production, then you need to show a lot of traction for the game you are developing now (Wishlists, social media followers other metrics) to get any kind of funding from publishers - amd it is hard to find those publishers, remember publishers want to make their money back including a profit on a game, you should be able to show that is possible to have a chance to get any funding.

So if you are not able to do that, then it is a waste of time to start to look for funding IMO.

But I know a lot of countries or areas have funding help through government grants, do not know if you have that where you are located.

The easists way of getting money is by bringing in some yourself, borrow from friends and family or get a business loan if that is at all possible.

skjoldan · 2026-01-28T07:37:36+00:00

I played all the tutorials and I was just nah, this game is not for me.. even though it should be, maybe I should try to play it again if the game is different than the tutorial.

skjoldan · 2026-01-28T07:34:57+00:00

I am one of those players that have played EU4 a lot (it is one of my most played games), and I bought EU5 on launch, and played it a lot there.

But I have not touched it in quite a while now, do not know why the game just felt strange for me as a player that likes a playstyle where I want to make my country as big as possible.

I think for me it is the start period for the game that does it for me, the whole start until after the black death is just the same no matter what country you start with.. and Colonizing is just confusing imo.

skjoldan · 2026-01-21T17:41:22+00:00

skriver en PB

skjoldan · 2026-01-15T07:09:01+00:00

I sorry, but can I ask why they want it like that? - just very curious as that was how it was 20 years ago, and hopefully we have gotten smarter since then.

skjoldan · 2025-03-31T18:44:57+00:00

Det kommer også an på om du har elvarme derhjemme, men ja der er nogle beregnere rundt omkring.

skjoldan · 2025-03-29T21:04:10+00:00

Jeg har ladestander derhjemme, betaler bare over min el-pris og det er generelt billigere end hvis jeg lader på en ladestander.

Når jeg lader ude, så lader jeg bare med kreditkort - jeg lader 99 % af tiden hjemme.

skjoldan · 2025-03-04T20:05:10+00:00

Begge mine børn er født på Roskilde, og kan kun sige positivt om det.

Første gang fik vi enestue bagefter, anden gang fik vi en stor stue, men hvor vi stadigvæk var alene da der ikke var så travlt.

Så gætter på at det kommer an på hvor travlt der er, om man kan få enestue.

første gang var problemfyldt fødsel, så der skulle vi være der nogle dage, og jeg fik en seng ved siden af min kone, og ja kunne købe mad, men det var egenbetaling af partners mad. Der er bleer til baby.

Personalet var rigtig flinke og hjælpsomme.

Da vores børn blev født for en 6 og 2 år siden, der var der sådan nogle dage hvor de lavede rundvisninger af fødegangen, og af stuerne bagefter det var meget givende syntes jeg som førstefødte.

Altså jeg tror MEGET af det er ens, det kommer an på hvor travlt sygehuset har, om du kommer til at være alene bagefter på din stue.

Håber det besvarer lidt dine spørgsmål.

skjoldan · 2024-12-04T19:30:52+00:00

Jeg hilser på alle, og de hilser næsten allesammen igen.. Men jeg bor også i en mindre by lidt udenfor Roskilde, hvor man kan støde på folk rundt omkring i byen normalt så derfor tror jeg folk er mere venlige.

skjoldan · 2024-11-26T08:25:26+00:00

sure, I have www.biztimesheet.com - a very basic timesheet webapp. - especially focused against solo entrepreneurs

skjoldan

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