Discussion: Finding Beta Users for a Slack App

Hi everyone!

The Slack App Directory is a great place to consider building a SaaS product on top of but comes with some hurdles at the beginning.

I've found these things challenging:

• Getting a bot onto the Marketplace has significant friction (takes 4-6 weeks for feedback, likely that you'd have to address the feedback and reapply)
• Finding users outside the marketplace to beta test your bot
• Discovering problems not already solved by existing solutions (probably because I haven't spoke with enough people)

I've done a bit of research and stumbled upon the Standuply Blog which actually has some great resources on building a Slack bot business and how to promote a Slack Bot.

From what I read, once you get your bot launched & listed, that'll be your main source of traffic but getting to that point requires some beta users.

So just wondering, has anyone explored building a Slack Bot and what have you done to get your first users?

P.S. I'm building MerlinAI which is a Slack Bot that automatically responds to FAQs in a channel using ChatGPT.