“Go where your users are already talking about the problem” sounds great until you actually try it
I keep seeing the same advice for early-stage products:
“Don’t sell. Find where your users already talk about the problem. Be helpful. Start conversations.”
So I tried it.
Reddit, Slack communities, LinkedIn, Sales Navigator. Carefully targeted outreach. Short messages, long messages. No links, links. No pitch. Personalized messages. Connection first, message later.
50+ outreaches later, almost nothing.
Then yesterday I found someone who had literally posted about the exact problem I built around.
Not vaguely related. Literally word for word.
We were already connected. I liked the post. Waited. Sent a short message referencing exactly what she had written.
She replied.
“What a great idea!”
Holy shit. The playbook works.
Two messages later:
“Not something I could use at this time.”
😂
I’m not saying outreach never works. Or that “talk to users” is bad advice.
But I’m starting to think a lot of startup distribution advice conveniently skips the hardest part:
Someone having the problem doesn’t mean they care enough to do anything about it.
And no amount of clever personalization fixes that.
Sometimes the problem isn’t your message.
Sometimes nobody wants to click your fucking link.