How do I find these first 5-10 members?
While the post Community: the new business model for indie hackers is already six years old, I think community building is still a very good method if you want to make an impact and not just build a product.
So I asked an AI chatbot for advice on how to start a community.
The answer:
Before you start:
- Am I willing to invest 10+ hours/week in community maintenance? Yes, check.
- Can I play on both the practical and political levels equally? Yes, check.
- Am I open to the community taking a different direction than planned? Yey, check.
- Do I have a network for the first 20 members? Oops, um, nope.
At first glance, it sounds so simple: find a handful of people who are really interested in the topic. Look on Reddit to see who writes about similar things. Write to people who publish interesting blog posts. Well, so far, no real connections have come out of it, let alone 20.
How did you do it, fellow community founders? Does it make more sense to approach people IRL, even if it's about an online community? Or have you found good ways to find people online who are genuinely interested in your topic?
I Got Shadow-Banned on Reddit So Many Times That I Built RedChecker
The "cold outreach to strangers on Reddit" approach rarely works for the first 10. Those people already have their own communities, priorities, and inbox fatigue.
What's worked for me is starting with adjacent conversations rather than direct recruitment. Find threads where people are already frustrated with the exact problem your community solves, then just... be useful. Answer their questions. Share your take. Don't pitch. If your perspective resonates, some will click through to your profile and find their way to you naturally.
For the very first few members, honestly your existing contacts are underrated. Not in a "hey join my thing" way - more like "I'm exploring this idea, would love to bounce thoughts off you." People who already know you are more likely to stick around and actually participate, which matters a lot early on when you need activity, not just signups.
IRL works weirdly well even for online communities, especially at small events or meetups where people are already in "I'm open to connecting" mode.
Thank you very much, those are very valuable insights.
That resonates strongly with me, it's definitely true.
But to be honest, it's much scarier to ask for honest feedback from people I know well than from strangers on Reddit.
Maybe that's the real problem, and I should start by only approaching people I already know. At least as a first step. Thank you for the encouragement, I'll keep you posted!
Great question — and the reason this feels hard isn’t “finding users.” It’s finding the right first users whose problems your product actually solves in a way that’s obvious and urgent.
The first 5–10 members aren’t a random audience — they’re your validation cohort, and the way you land them should reflect that:
People don’t join because they’re “interested.” They join because they recognize themselves in a context you describe. Use concrete situations in your outreach:
“If you’ve spent >3 hours this week stuck on X…”
“If your current tool does Y but fails at Z…”
That specificity gets responses; generic “try this tool” posts don’t.
Don’t just look for platforms — look for moments of conflict or decision around your problem domain.
Examples:
GitHub issues where people are asking for a solution
Product Hunt discussions complaining about a gap
Reddit/StackOverflow threads where people are stuck
Those are active intent signals — the people there are much more likely to engage.
Ask yourself: if you were the user, what kind of exchange feels fair?
Founders who lead with something genuinely helpful get responses at much higher rates than “I’m building X, join my beta.”
The cohort you attract first will also shape your positioning. Early members want to feel heard and represented — which means your messaging has to reflect their language, not generic product talk.
This is exactly the kind of strategic clarity we help founders refine at Quratulain Creatives — making sure the first outreach doesn’t just generate traffic, but meaningful, engaged users.
A quick question for you: what specific outcome or signal are you hoping those first 5–10 members validate? That often clarifies where you should look and how you should talk to them.