I’m starting to think distribution behaves more like a portfolio than a funnel now
For a while I kept looking for the “main” growth channel.
SEO.
Product Hunt.
Reddit.
Dev communities.
Utility pages.
Social.
Launch platforms.
I treated distribution like a funnel:
find one channel → scale it → repeat.
But the more projects I ship, the less stable that model feels.
Product Hunt can create a spike that disappears in days.
Reddit can work great until the thread dies.
Social reach shifts with algorithms.
SEO compounds slowly, but feedback loops are painfully delayed.
What’s been changing my thinking recently is realizing that distribution feels more like managing a portfolio of assets now.
Some channels create short bursts.
Some compound slowly.
Some build credibility.
Some improve semantic discovery over time.
Some only work because another channel already exists.
Individually they feel fragile.
Together they start reinforcing each other.
I’m also noticing that “owned” distribution is broader than I originally thought.
Not just email lists.
But:
SEO pages that keep getting discovered
GitHub repos people keep finding
useful comments in communities
tools that naturally generate backlinks
utility workflows people return to
searchable problem-specific pages
None of these explode overnight.
But they seem to age better than pure spikes.
Curious if other builders here have been feeling the same shift lately.
It makes a lot of sense. I think the hardest part is building the "portfolio" and especially in the beginning when the product is just an idea that needs its validation and early adopters. One needs to build the channels one by one and in the right order because (as you say) they have different purpose.
I'm curious what is the order you develop the channels through the lifecycle of a product?
Also how much time do you spent daily/weekly for each?
I’m still figuring it out honestly, but right now I think the ordering matters a lot more than I expected.
For very early products, I’ve started treating channels differently based on feedback speed vs compounding potential.
Things like:
give fast signal and help validate positioning.
But they decay quickly.
SEO / utility pages feel almost opposite:
very slow feedback, but potentially compounding if they survive long enough.
So lately I’ve been trying to pair:
with
instead of trying to force a single “main” acquisition source.
Time-wise I still spend way too much on experimentation honestly. Probably:
Still feels pretty chaotic most of the time.
Seems reasonable - combining the faster validation channels with the slower compounding.
I think it's normal to be chaotic because the whole thing is reactive in nature and the focus is moved depending on the results. The important is to keep the general direction and to have a strategy about the channels you use and their timing.
Yeah, I think the “portfolio” framing also changed how I think about failure a bit.
A channel dying no longer feels like the whole system failing — more like one asset underperforming while others keep compounding.
Still trying to figure out how much diversification is healthy before it just becomes distraction though.