A lot of founders don’t actually want feedback. They want validation

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because I keep seeing products launch with huge posts, polished landing pages, fancy animations… and then complete silence when real users react differently than expected.

And honestly, I get it.

Putting something out there is uncomfortable. Especially when you’ve spent months building it. At some point, your product stops feeling like “a tool” and starts feeling personal. So when people ignore it, or don’t understand it, it feels weirdly painful.

But I think a lot of us secretly want validation more than feedback.

Validation sounds like:
“Looks awesome.”
“Great idea.”
“Love the design.”

Feedback sounds like:
“I don’t get it.”
“I wouldn’t use this.”
“This part is confusing.”

One helps your ego. The other helps your product.

A while ago we shipped something that we thought was super clear. Technically solid, UX felt polished, everything made sense to us. Then early users came in and immediately got stuck on the first screen. Not because they were “bad users.” Because we were too deep inside our own assumptions.

That was painful to watch. But also incredibly useful.

I’m starting to think the real skill isn’t building fast. It’s staying emotionally detached enough to listen when people don’t react the way you hoped.

Curious if others have experienced this too — what’s the hardest piece of feedback you’ve received on something you built?