Hey bootstrappers,

If you’re on the cusp of starting a business, it might pay to wait a little.

One of this week’s founders built an audience for her product before releasing it. Her community then went bananas for it on launch day. 

Another founder we interviewed set up a “coming soon” website with a Typeform to measure demand. He hadn’t even built the product yet. 

While it might seem like putting the cart before the horse, building an audience first helps you test product-market fit before building or releasing something no one wants. 

You'll also spend less on paid marketing when you have a list of engaged customers on launch day. 

But how do you build an audience? The answer, according to this week’s founders, is:

1. Produce content that helps people or answers their questions (SEO bonus here too).
2. Build a reputation for being helpful and knowledgable on social media.
3. Fix a small problem first before releasing a larger solution (iterative development wins). 

I’m sure you can think of more but the critical thing is helping people (for free) before asking them for money.

Then when it’s time to launch your product or service, your audience will, at the very least, consider buying from you. 

– Chris Roper

Joe Suh built a simple Messenger app that became a hit with ecommerce businesses. When Facebook upended his startup, he sold it and built the app his clients had been begging for.

How the Freedom to Fail Led to Two Six-Figure Exits and Over $2 Million in Revenue for This Serial Entrepreneur

“You have thousands of merchants on Facebook Live selling everything from jewelry to clothing, and they’re doing it manually. This third app automates all of that away, and I wouldn’t have known about this problem if it hadn’t been for the customers of my other two apps.”

After years of blogging about airline loyalty programs, Mark Ross-Smith learned to code and solved a problem for elite flyers that was an instant hit with his followers and subscribers.

How This Founder’s Expertise (and Frustration) With Airline Loyalty Programs Became a Million-Dollar Business

“Airlines are really terrible at acquiring high-value customers. You email, wait a month, and maybe someone replies to you. And in that time you’ve done 50 flights because you’re a frequent flier. And you forget about your first request and you move on. The system is broken.”

When Christy Laurence wanted to help people build online followings, she didn’t start with the product but the audience, resulting in a million downloads with zero paid marketing.

Perfecting the Pre-Launch: How This Founder Earned 3 Million Global Downloads of Her Social Media Tool

“I would start in a New Zealand group and then move on to Australia, Canada, and the US, making my way across the time zones. I did this until I became a trusted member of those groups. At one point, I became ‘the girl who knows the answer.’”

“Being employed is a great time to experiment on nights and weekends. See what resonates with customers. Then once you get excited about something, that’s when you leave the day job – at least that’s been my strategy.”

 - Joe Suh, Smart Messenger

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