I’m good at building products, but terrible at getting customers. How do I get past this?
I'm a software engineer, and I've realized that I keep repeating the same pattern with businesses I start.
I'm very comfortable building the product. I can design the architecture, write the software, launch the website, build the mobile app, add features, and keep improving it.
But then I get to the part where I actually need people to pay for it, and that's where I struggle.
My current business is a tech learning platform aimed at software engineers and people preparing for technical interviews and certifications. I've built a web app and mobile app with interview practice, technical lessons, communication practice, and other learning tools.
The product exists. The problem is distribution.
I don't have much traffic, I don't have an audience large enough to reliably generate customers, and paid users are basically nonexistent right now.
I'm starting to realize that continuing to build features is probably the easiest thing for me to do, but not necessarily the thing the business needs.
For entrepreneurs who were also builders first:
How did you go from "I built something" to consistently getting your first 10, 50, or 100 paying customers?
Did you focus on cold outreach, content, YouTube, SEO, paid advertising, partnerships, communities, or something else?
And at what point did you realize you had a product problem versus simply a distribution/sales problem?
I'm especially interested in hearing from technical founders who had to learn sales and marketing after years of focusing mostly on engineering.