Hundreds of Signups and Revenue on Day One: Why Validating First Changed Everything
Coming from Big Tech where I'd worked on products reaching hundreds of millions of users, I was confident I could launch successfully on my own. I was wrong. Twice.
In my early days as an engineer, I built a golf scorecard tracker capable of handling complex scoring like skins and match play, even managing multiple foursomes in low- or no-service situations. Everyone thought it was cool, but nobody paid for it. I launched it to complete silence.
Next, I created AutoPiilot, a technically impressive privacy solution. With just two lines of code integrated into an existing app, it ensured private data couldn't be accessed beyond permissible uses, perfect for GDPR compliance. But when I talked to customers after building it, I learned some critical lessons:
Economics drive decisions: Customers weren't as interested in genuine privacy solutions as they were in limiting legal liability.
Audience mismatch: The engineers who found the tech impressive weren't the decision-makers. Lawyers and chief compliance officers, who are driven by checklists and liability mitigation, ultimately controlled purchasing decisions.
AutoPiilot became more of a proof of concept than a viable business.
These cycles were exhausting.
For my next idea, I inverted the process entirely. I built PMFix, initially as a personal tool, to automate validation: instantly generating landing pages and ads, with built-in algorithms spotting genuine traction signals.
I ran PMFix's own idea through its validation process. The results were clear: immediate traction. On day one of our launch, PMFix had hundreds of signups and actual revenue.
Here's what I learned:
Big tech vs. startups: Big tech companies can afford to throw countless engineering hours at speculative bets. Startup founders can't. You must validate quickly and cheaply.
Validate first, code later. No exceptions.
Cool ≠ revenue. There's a huge gap between "That's interesting" and "Take my money."
Raise your standards. As an engineer, your time is valuable. Never write a line of code until there's real traction.
MVT (Minimum Viable Test) > MVP. Prove willingness to pay before writing real code.
Warm launches beat cold launches. Having a waitlist of engaged users ready from day one provides invaluable rapport and early feedback.
Hope this helps someone avoid the pitfalls I fell into. Happy to answer any questions! Feel free to ask about my experiences scaling products at Big Tech too!
