Build an audience first, or launch and grow later?
@hussein_r the biggest mistake is not building an audience at all which results in an empty room when you launch.
talk about what you're working on from the start
@taniabell That’s a great point, Tania! Definitely realizing now how important it is to build in public early instead of waiting until launch day.
Curious—what’s been the most effective way for you to grow an audience while building? Do you focus more on sharing progress, engaging with communities, or something else?
@hussein_r i don't think there's a formula or a silver bullet tbh.
but there are a few principles that worth keeping in mind
let the world know that you're working on a thing
keep the convos going
be useful and add value to wherever you choose to engage with ppl
hope this helps
@hussein_r @taniabell So, is it more of getting feedback as you build as opposed to launching to get more users? Our approach was to launch the product with an engaging community and get insights on areas we could improve our product to support them better. But I see your point.
I'm build an audience first too. I think the market has changed and there's more allowance for free marketing when it comes to building and engaging potential users in your platform via social media like TikTok. I think I put it somewhere where there's a Matcha store that hasn't opened up but has had over 100k followers. Meaning the have 100k+ potential clients immediately.
@psproductperson Exactly. The number of platforms available for free marketing has grown significantly. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are all excellent for attracting an organic audience.
@kay_arkain Yes! There's so many platforms out there to attract organic and save your ad money. Or at least experiment organic ways to grow your audience so you can actually pay for ads that you know will work. And the fun part too is if you're good enough with it, you can even get another source of revenue.
@nuellaugochi I totally forgot about Pinterest! It's quite underrated, isn't it?
From your experience though, do you find that there's a formula to put your videos out there in these platforms? Because personally, I know that I'm still experimenting to increase my viewing time and engagement
Such a great discussion! I’ve seen both approaches work, but it really depends on the product and market.
Building an audience first is ideal if you're creating something new and need validation. But launching first and iterating fast can work better for products where early user feedback drives growth.
For us, we focused on building momentum early—we’re launching Helix on Feb 17th! Would love your thoughts—just visit my page and click ‘Try Helix for FREE’!
I strongly agree that building an audience first is the way to go. But this audience shouldn’t just be passive viewers—they should be authentic, engaged supporters who believe in the journey.
These people will be part of the product’s evolution, focusing not on its flaws but on helping it improve. With their continued support, once the product reaches a certain stage, it can generate an even greater network effect.
Build the audience first because if your are totally unknown and not trustworthy for some newbie people, there will be lack of trust into your product as well.
This makes me think - obviously growing an audience sounds like the most logical idea, but is this equally scalable/possible for every category of product? Would love to read and learn how people in enterprise SaaS industries for example, have found success in growing a community and what parts of that playbook would be useful to starting to build a relevant community in PH.
@abesh_thakur simply post on socials about what you're working on. choose a couple of platform max, be careful to select the platform where your potential buyers are likely to hang on the most and get posting. you won't regret it
I’m all for growing the audience first. You can have many launches, but your audience will usually stay more or less the same.
Building an audience first vs. launching and growing later—both paths have their trade-offs.
For us, we started by building a community first around LinkedIn growth, which helped shape our product and gave us a group of engaged early adopters when we launched. Having that initial support made all the difference.
That said, I’ve seen products launch first and iterate quickly based on real-world user feedback, which can work well too.
I’ve experienced both approaches and found that building an audience before launching really helped create excitement and early validation. It’s a lot of upfront work, but the payoff comes when you have a loyal group of early adopters. That said, launching first gave me faster feedback and the chance to iterate quickly. Having an MVP, something to iterate on from the start is crucial for real-world feedback. Balancing both is key!
It depends on the product and resources available. If you have the time and budget, building product awareness early can make the initial launch and future releases generate a large buzz faster. Building a group of people who like and trust your product idea and brand early will create a loyal fanbase that can advocate for you, saving money and time to work on the product instead of an initial marketing boost. These marketing efforts should be ongoing to keep momentum and will pay dividends if the product evolves or you want to launch a new product. Every product will have users but a brand can have multiple products worth of users. Brand is the ultimate goal
That all being said, you could be the best marketer on the planet and build the biggest audience and still fail without delivering a product.
Doing an even split will allow you to develop both which is the best scenario. Focus on the thing you struggle with most to grow it the fastest. Or outsource the work for either to focus on what you do best!
@drewg2009 These are good points. But I think you want more effort for the product as you keep an eye on the growth aspects.
I will share my approach. I don't know whether it will give me the expected results and profits.
I am a solo founder. I have very limited resources (money) so I decided to bootstrap (though I'm still unsure if it's the right approach).
As an engineer I easily implemented core functionality for my product. I decided to not work on security layer and user management, until I find my first users. I made a simple landing page to present my idea and collect email addresses to contact people for a product demo.
I wrote 2 posts on linkedIn and 2 on my fb profile. Unfortunately, not many visitors on my page. Only two close friends signed up.
My audience are office workers.
PS.
If anyone has some suggestions how to improve/to make a good marketing strategy, please text me. :)
This is a tough call, and I think it depends on the product and your strengths as a founder.
If you already have an audience (or can build one relatively fast), that’s a huge advantage. It makes launching easier, gives you direct feedback, and can drive early traction. But audience-building takes time, and not every SaaS business has the luxury to wait months before making revenue.
On the flip side, launching first and figuring out growth along the way works if you’re solving an urgent pain point. In B2B SaaS, for example, you can get your first customers through direct outreach, referrals, and partnerships without having a huge audience. Then, once you have paying users, you can start building content, case studies, and inbound marketing.
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Building an audience first gives you validation and early supporters, but it takes time. Launching first gets you real feedback quickly, but gaining traction can be tough without an audience. I’ve seen both work, which approach you’re leaning towards?
Very interesting post @nuellaugochi !
I think building an audience is important, if there is noone to use what you build there is no point.
However, I dont think it needs to be a binary decision. i.e one or the other.
You should build your audience, and your product at the same time. The thing is that regarding building your product, you have more control over. aka if you dont build it it wont be built lol..
However, with audience it does not depend on you 100%, it depends on the platforms you use and if you manage to get your content right. Therefore, while testing things out in terms of what your audience likes, you should definitely not ditch the product side of things.
Because platforms like instagram, linkedin, x or whatever, to grow and build an audience requires a lot of energy an attention, and i dont think any entrepreneur should put all their effort to making those platforms richer.
Because you working on building an audience, guarantees that the platforms get richer, it does not guarantee that you will successfully create an engaging community.
That's my take.
Keep hustling!
(very interesting post, nice!)
T
As always - the truth is somewhere in the middle. would probably advice to launch a simple MVP and build an audience around it. Its always a question on how much feedback we need to receive before making this MVP and actual end2end product, but every journey is different!
In my opinion, we should start building an audience as early as possible. If we can articulate the product idea clearly and vividly — which isn’t always the case, even with strong startups — and if we have the resources to create buzz and keep the audience engaged without a product, then it makes sense to do so before launch. However, if resources are limited and the investment in promotion needs to generate returns quickly, there’s nothing wrong with waiting until the product is launched.
This post reminds me of one of my favorite articles, which influenced me to start building great products without worrying too much about growing an audience. Because to be a successful founder, we don’t need millions of customers, just a thousand true fans.
True Fan definition form the article
"A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month."
You can read the article here: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
At ShopIQ, we embraced a hybrid approach—building a lean version of our platform while actively engaging D2C founders to refine it with real-world feedback. This allowed us to validate assumptions, iterate rapidly, and fine-tune our solution ahead of our full launch on Feb 22, 2025. But the journey hasn’t been without challenges:
Feature Prioritisation – Striking a balance between our vision and what users truly need.
Diverse Opinions – Not every piece of feedback aligns with our long-term goals.
Patience & Discipline – The urge to launch early is strong, but great products take time.
By focusing on real user needs, we’re ensuring that when we go live, we’re not just launching a product—we’re delivering a solution that an engaged, invested, and eager audience is already excited about.
Great question! I think both strategies can work, but it really depends on the type of product and audience.
For Graphify, I decided to launch first and build the audience along the way. The reason? My main goal was to get real user feedback as early as possible, rather than spending months growing an audience without knowing if the product truly resonated.
That said, I can see the value in building an audience first, especially for consumer-facing products where community and pre-launch buzz can make a big difference.
Curious—what do you think is the biggest mistake founders make when building an audience pre-launch? Is it not engaging enough, or focusing too much on numbers instead of actual relationships? Would love to hear your take! 🚀