The biggest lie founders tell themselves: “We just need more users”

This is a really interesting way to think about early traction. A lot of founders focus on getting more users when the real challenge is understanding who actually needs the product in the first place. I like the idea of searching for real conversations where people are already asking for solutions—it feels much more practical than guessing. I sometimes explore different niche communities and random sites during research, and you’d be surprised what you can discover even while browsing something unrelated like https://7brewsecretemenu.com/. Sometimes those small explorations lead to unexpected insights about user behavior and interests.

the signal vs traffic distinction is really important and i think it maps directly to when paid UA actually works too - paid is an amplifier, not a demand generator, so running ads before you know who's converting just burns budget faster. the founders i've seen scale paid channels well always did the manual demand-finding work first, understood the exact language and context of their best users, then used that to build creative and targeting. what you described is basically the prerequisite before any paid channel makes sense. curious how you think about the transition point - when do you know you have enough signal to start amplifying?

just signed up. 7 day trial. but it found nothing and already showing trial limit reached (1/1)

More traffic rarely fixes weak retention, fuzzy positioning, or low perceived value: it usually just makes the leak bigger. What’s the first signal you look at to tell whether the problem is acquisition vs product/offer?

Solid reframe. Most founders I know are addicted to generating demand because it feels like action — running ads, posting content, cold DMing. Looking for existing demand feels passive, almost like cheating.

But you're right that it's actually harder. It requires you to sit with the uncomfortable question: "Does anyone actually want this, right now, without me convincing them?"

The soft pitch at the end was smooth, by the way. I didn't see it coming until I was already nodding.

Couldn't agree more:
"Is there a tool that finds customers already asking for solutions like mine?"

No ads, no SEO grind. Just hunting where people are already raising their hands.

Beat "more users" thinking every time.

LeadSynth looks 🔥 for scaling—grabbing IH20.

I just found a cheat code. Or should I say a help note. Sometimes, we just push money into ads without proper targeting when the potential users just sit in our front.

I love this post and it really is the pain point for most building something new- but advertising generally is always starting in the center of the haystack and that needle is nearly impossible to find, but wasting money seems to be the first thing we do, until the well drys up and we are forced to think and take a different strategy! Thanks for the post- I hope more people catch this one!

Great point.

I'm building a focus productivity app and I'm trying to find communities where people already talk about struggling with focus.

This resonates a lot. A lot of early founders assume the problem is traffic when the real issue is not knowing where the demand already exists.

I’ve noticed that when you start reading real conversations in communities, the language people use to describe the problem is often very different from how founders originally frame the product. That gap alone can change how you position or even design the tool.

This hits so hard! I am 17 years old from Kerala India validating my first startup CompeteIQ right now and I almost fell into this exact trap. The founders I see struggling most are the ones chasing user numbers without deeply understanding why their current users chose them over alternatives in the first place. If you don't know exactly why someone chose you over every other option available — getting more users just means more people churning for the same unknown reason. The real question is never how do I get more users but why did my existing users choose me and how do I find more people exactly like them. What do you think is the real thing founders should be obsessing over instead of user numbers?

"They don't have a traffic problem, they have a signal problem" — that reframe alone is worth the entire post. Most founders default to "more eyeballs" because it feels like progress. Running ads, posting content, sending cold emails — it's all activity. But activity without signal is just noise with a budget.

The blank note exercise is deceptively simple. We tried something similar early on — instead of guessing where our users were, we searched for the exact words people use when they describe the problem we solve. The gap between how founders describe their product and how users describe their pain is massive. Founders say features. Users say frustration. When you match the frustration language, you stop selling and start answering.

The other thing that resonated: "instead of trying to generate demand, look for where demand already exists." We've found that the best early conversations come from people who already know they have the problem — they just haven't found a solution yet. The conversion dynamic is completely different. You're not convincing anyone. You're showing up at the right time.

Where it gets tricky for us: some of the best signal lives in throwaway comments, not dedicated posts. Someone mentions a pain point in a reply to someone else's thread, not in their own post. That's where the richest intent hides but it's also the hardest to find at scale.

To answer your question — our first real users came from replying to founders who were publicly sharing the exact problem we solve. No outreach list. Just listening in the right places.

Actually, customer acquisition is a really tough problem, and it seems like it could be an interesting solution!

hmm interesting

I think this is big problems.