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355 points rasulkireev | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.255s | source

Hey HN,

I am a solo founder that just finished writing code for my project (MVP) and am ready to find clients.

- for the sake of the question, my clients will be small physical businesses. Think, Family Doctor's Office, Local Cafe, Small barber, etc.

I will be developing a blog for SEO purposes and doing other things to promote my business online. However, I believe the key to success here will be "Cold Sales". I have never done that before. So, if you could recommend a book, a blog post, other online resources, or you just have a random advice that I could learn from, I would be very thankful.

Suffice it to say I will be starting out ASAP, even though I don't know anything. I believe practice is the best teacher. However, if there are any resources that could help me get up and running quicker that would be awesome. Thanks a ton in advance.

1. yowlingcat ◴[] No.33225126[source]
I would actually say that you have gone about the process in the wrong order. That is to say, you should start off by talking to your clients /first/. Figure out what their problems are. Collect all of that.

Then, come up with a concept tailored directly to their problems. You probably need no more than a 1-3 slide deck to show this to them and figure out whether the concept is desired by your end customer.

Finally, and only once you've validated that the concept is desired by your end customer, you build the product.

The problem with doing it in the order you've mentioned, is what happens when you go and show your product to a customer and they say "Nope, I don't actually have an issue which your product solves. Thanks but no thanks."

Sales is the beginning, middle and end of your journey as a founder. Building the product only comes in over time once you've found something worth selling.