[DISCUSSION] Idea validation & first users: what works and what doesn't

So you've got an idea for a product that you think sounds doable. Being a good founder, you know that that's not enough to warrant investing hundreds of hours into building it just yet, so you set out to validate your idea and see if you can even get some first interested users on your beta waiting list. There are multiple ways of doing this, but at the end of the day it all boils down to explaining your solution in an eloquent manner and collecting feedback. Here are some ways I've personally tried:

IH post

don't need to introduce this one.

Pros:

• Fast and easy.
• The medium's format limits work in your favor as it narrows down your focus into writing well, without being distracted by fonts, images, spacing, etc.
• Free!

Cons:

• If you get feedback and/or interest, there's no immediate way to capture it. The conversation dies when the thread dies off and you've lost contact.

Carrd landing page

Carrd.co offers a static one-page landing page visual creator and hosting.

Pros:

• Interactive no-code builder is easy to use.
• Easy to get going (one click!).
• Integration with email service is straightforward.
• Pro plan is super cheap.

Cons:

• You have to use 3rd party email services for the transactional emails portion.
• Default templates are few and not very great.
• Design limitations aren't quite obvious so you risk wasting time trying to recreate a design you have in your head only to find out that it's not possible or requires extensive magic and effort. (I've been there)

Use a template for a static page and host it

You can find HTML templates that look nice everywhere, even for free. You just have to modify the contents and host it.

Pros:

• Large variety of pro-level templates around.
• Removes "designer anxiety".

Cons:

• Doing anything other than modifying the text and swapping the logo is probably going to be a nightmare. These usually come with large css stylesheets that are a pain to understand and modify. Once you go down that road get ready to spend a lot of time trying to bend it to your liking.
• You have to manually add any interactivity you want. If you want an email signup form you have to figure out how to add that yourself.
• You also have to take care of hosting yourself. This means significant recurring costs for something you haven't even begun to validate yet most of the time.

Build a static site yourself

You can use a static page generator like Gatsby, Next or Hugo and build a landing page yourself from the ground up.

Pros:

• You get to decide on everything, maximum flexibility.
• That's about it.

Cons:

• HUGE time drain considering the high statistical chance that it's going to be wasted. (Remember, we're talking about landing pages for ideas that haven't been validated yet)
• Hosting costs
• Significant learning curve since you need to design, code and host all by yourself.

LandingPing

(--personal plug--) landingping.com let's you have a compromise on the pros of the above methods without any of the cons. You get a public shareable page were you can write your copy with a rich text editor and publish public updates that also get sent out to your subscribers via email. This is tailored for someone who understands that very few ideas are actually worth pursuing without any validation behind them and wants to waste the least amount of time possible trying to validate their idea and get initial interested users.

Pros:

• No landing page design.
• No setup, you can publish your page in minutes.
• Concentrating on writing let's you focus on refining your message and saves you from the temptation of going all out on designing a landing page for a product you haven't even launched yet.
• Email service is included by default, you just have to publish the updates.
• No code. No hosting effort or costs.
• Reduces iteration loop significantly, you can edit the contents and publish it in milliseconds.
• FREE

Cons:

• No landing page design.
• No interactivity other than email signup (for the moment).
• No custom domain (for the moment).

IH, what other paths have you took to validate your product ideas? Do you agree with my overview?