Two weeks in, still no users — but a running list of what I didn't expect to learn
Two weeks in, still no confirmed users, but a running list of things I didn't expect to learn:
— A quiet launch isn't just disappointing, it's data. Someone here pointed out it can tell you which part of your pitch actually lands, before you've spent real audience-building effort on the wrong angle.
— "I built it for myself" only counts as proof if you actually have the problem. I don't, quite — fixing my page copy to stop implying otherwise.
— Distribution and product-market fit get blamed on each other constantly, and I still don't have a clean way to tell them apart when the signal is this thin.
Not a success story yet. Just trying to be honest about what two weeks of this actually looks like.
One thing to add if it's not there: what people said no to, and the words they used. Not the count, the wording. Right now a specific "I already do this with X" tells you far more than silence does, because silence could mean anything.
Two weeks is also short. You probably haven't been in front of enough people to learn anything about the product yet. That's a distribution fact, not a product one, and they get mixed up constantly at this stage.
That's a good point. I was mostly thinking about the number of people who didn't convert, but the actual wording behind a "no" is probably much more useful.
I'll start keeping a list of the specific reasons people give, especially things like "I already do this with X" or what they'd be uncomfortable trusting AI with.
And I agree on the two-week point. I think I was starting to mix "I haven't reached enough people yet" with "the product isn't working." I don't have enough signal yet to make that call.
Not having enough signal yet is the right call. There is also a way to stop waiting for it. Signal that arrives on its own is slow and ambiguous. Signal you go and collect is neither. Find people who described this problem in public in the last month, in their own words, with a link you can open. If you cannot find anyone after honestly looking, that is an answer and it arrives early. If you find them easily and none of the people you pitched came from a list like that, you have not tested the product yet, only whoever was already nearby.
What are you building, in one sentence, and who is it for? I will run that search and post what comes back here, empty result included.
Sure — I’d describe it as:
I’m building a free AI email triage system for freelancers and solopreneurs that sorts incoming emails into actionable categories and helps them see what needs their attention, without adding another paid tool or subscription.
The main problem I’m trying to solve is the time and mental effort freelancers spend manually sorting their inbox and figuring out which emails actually require action.
I’d be very interested to see what you find, including an empty result.