Originally published in SeedStage Digest (June 2023)
Forget stealth mode. More and more founders are going audience-first — using Reddit, Twitter, TikTok, and newsletters to validate ideas *before* writing a single line of code.
These aren’t just influencers-turned-founders. They’re bootstrappers using storytelling and open sharing to de-risk product decisions and build trust with potential users before launch day.
**Case 1: The Post That Started It All**
“When I posted my idea in r/startups, I got 70 DMs in two days,” said Mel Saad, who later launched a lightweight email tracking plugin. “I hadn’t even bought the domain yet.” That thread led to a waitlist, a beta group, and her first 20 customers.
**Case 2: Building a Brand Before the Product**
Arjun Bhatt built an entire newsletter about micro-SaaS before launching his first one. “By the time I launched, 1,400 people already knew me,” he said. “Some of them became my first paying users — and my earliest critics.”
**Case 3: Quiet Listening Before Loud Launches**
Not everyone posts threads. Some founders quietly mine Reddit for pain points, then build in silence. “I don’t post,” said one solo founder. “I just read and solve.”
This approach isn’t new, but it’s accelerating — especially in crowded categories. Founders are realizing that building in the open doesn’t just help with marketing. It helps with **product intuition**.
As Bhatt puts it: “If you can’t get 10 people excited with words alone, maybe the product needs more thinking.”
Fun fact : Reddit actually faked its initial users and engagement in order to boost the sites appeal and to make it not feel like a ghost town found that interesting
this actually makes so much sense then get their input and build based off the problems they have