Here’s the 4 step approach we followed for building something people wanted:
1. We started by validating our idea before building anything at all.
2. Once we got a green check on that, we built an MVP fast.
3. Then we launched the MVP, got our initial users through content marketing which validated the project further.
4. At this point we built the full product.
Going to market is a lot easier when you know you have a validated product.
Our first marketing move was to launch on Product Hunt.
We had heard some skepticism around Product Hunt launches so we didn’t expect much but here’s what happened:
- Before launching we had 0 paying subscribers.
- On the evening of our launch day we got our first paying subscriber.
- One week later we had 20.
Definitely a success.
What we did to maximize our launch:
We were very active on X on the launch day, posting a lot of content and keeping people updated on how the launch was going.
That led to a lot of momentum actually. People became invested in our launch.
We also posted on Reddit, but much less so.
After the launch we experienced a dip, which was to be expected. But we worked our way through it.
The next steps were clear for us:
1. Talk to users and improve our product
2. Keep up the momentum we built from content marketing
3. Find a better long term marketing source (we’re focusing on SEO now)
We have now hit 50 paying subscribers and growth is looking really good.
That’s how we took our project from 0 to our first paying subscribers.
I hope I was able to provide some insight on how that journey might play out. Happy to provide more input in the comments.