54 posts, 26 products, zero sales — what validation actually looks like vs what i did
i built 26 products before talking to a single customer. heres the full list of what i created and why none of it sold.
what i built
- 15 PDF templates (budgets, checklists, guides)
- 5 dev cheat sheets
- 3 AI prompt packs
- 1 agency contact list ($19)
- 1 SEO chrome extension ($9)
- 1 cold outreach service ($149/mo)
what i did NOT do
- talk to a single potential buyer before building
- ask anyone if they would pay for any of these
- validate demand with a landing page before creating the product
- research what people actually search for and buy
what validation actually looks like
- find a person who has a problem
- ask them how they currently solve it
- ask them what theyd pay for a better solution
- THEN build the thing
what i did was the reverse: build 26 things, post about them, hope someone stumbles across one and buys it. thats not validation. thats gambling.
the one product that has a chance
the agency contact list ($19) is the closest to validated because:
- the buyer exists (salespeople doing cold outreach)
- the problem is real (scraping agency emails takes 15+ hours)
- the free sample proves quality (50 agencies, downloadable now)
- the price is low enough for impulse purchase
everything else was built for nobody in particular.
free sample: https://vemtrac.gumroad.com/l/blole
lead list: https://vemtrac-outreach.pages.dev/leads
chrome extension: https://vemtrac.gumroad.com/l/klwksv
how many products did you build before your first sale?
