The Startup Ideas Podcast
The best businesses are built at the intersection of emerging technology, community, and real human needs.
“Build the community before the product”
What It Means
Creating engaged user communities during development leads to stronger product launches
Why It Matters
Provides built-in audience for launch and continuous feedback during development
When It's True
When building consumer products with social or community elements
When It's Risky
For products that don't benefit from community engagement or when lacking time to nurture community
How to Apply
Create Discord or WhatsApp groups for early supporters
Share development updates regularly
Ask community for input on features and design decisions
Convert community members to day-one users at launch
Example Scenario
“Developer builds Discord community of 500 face yoga enthusiasts during app development, resulting in 200 day-one downloads at launch”
Related Knowledge
AI-Powered E-commerce Validation Framework
A systematic approach using AI agents to validate e-commerce opportunities by analyzing trends, identifying pain points, generating concepts, and sourcing suppliers in an integrated workflow.
validate people want to buy this thing see if you can build it
Prove market demand and distribution viability before spending time building the actual product
The hardest thing to do is to find something that somebody actually wants to use
Product-market fit is harder than technical execution, so focus on validation over code quality initially
Low competition, cheap CPC. So you know there's a business to be created here
When trend data shows high growth with low competition and cheap cost-per-click advertising, it indicates a validated bu
Embarrassingly simple, give yourself 2 to 3 days to build it
Initial product versions should be so basic they feel embarrassing, but buildable in days not months
Post daily until one goes viral, that's the goal
Consistent daily content creation is required to achieve viral validation of product concepts