Examples of pre-sales for idea validation?

Hey all,

We all know the saying „nothing validates your idea more than paying customers“ and often you hear of people using pre-sales to validate a business idea.

I usually see people having success with pre-sales that

1. already have an existing audience
2. sell for low price
3. have one-time purchase products (as opposed to subscriptions).

Now, I’m looking for examples who managed to be successful with pre-sales without the above. Meaning, people who have pre-sold a mid-high (>= 50$/month) subscription product without having a large audience.

Any examples coming to mind? One I can think of is Alex West, who went straight to 300$ MRR with CyberLeads (and didn’t have a large audience at the time). Would love to hear about other examples :)