My GTM was totally hosed (0 reacts, Reddit blocked). One research post changed everything.

Hey IH,

It’s been a wild 24 hours, and I’m actually “building in public” now.

A few days ago I was completely frozen.

My first launch post for Approvelo (https://approvelo.com
) got 0 reactions (it was a low-value “Ask” — I see that now).

I got blocked from posting on Reddit because my account was too new and looked spammy.

I was “selling” when I should’ve been learning.

So I wiped my GTM mentally and tried again.

Last night I finally unlocked r/projectmanagement and posted a single research question — no links, no promo, just trying to understand how people work.

It turned into a goldmine.

I asked how they translate technical tickets into client-friendly language. The thread blew up (for my scale, anyway), and I learned:

-The Must-Have: Everyone kept coming back to trust. They won’t touch a tool that feels like a black box. They need a “sense check” / approval step to catch AI hallucinations and add their own corporate-politics spin.

-The Hard ROI: One user gave hard numbers: their competing tool cut a 150-minute task down to 10 minutes (~93% reduction).

-The Real Job: Another user said the hardest part isn’t the translation itself — it’s “writing in the benefit / value adds”.

That single post basically handed me a product roadmap and a chunk of marketing copy.

Big lesson for me: give (data, research, insight) before you ask.

I’m the solo dev behind https://approvelo.com
. Now that I actually know what to build, my next step is an r/agency post to talk directly to buyers.

What a crazy 24 hours.