The distribution channel you should focus on FIRST
When founders finally think about distribution, the usual move is to:
post on Reddit, X, or LinkedIn
launch on Product Hunt
hope something sticks
Sometimes it brings a spike of attention.
Most of the time, it brings:
curiosity
low-intent traffic
polite feedback
very few customers
Here’s why these aren’t great first channels.
1) Posting is broadcasting, not learning
Posting on social or launch platforms is one-to-many.
You share.
People scroll.
A few like.
Almost no one explains why they didn’t care.
Early-stage founders don’t need reach.
They need conversations.
Cold outreach flips the dynamic:
you talk to people with active problems
you ask questions
you hear real objections
you get uncomfortable but useful feedback
That’s impossible to get from likes and impressions.
2) Launch platforms optimize for attention, not intent
Product Hunt, Hacker News, and similar platforms are great for:
exposure
credibility
momentum
They’re not great for:
understanding your ICP
validating your offer
getting consistent customers
Most visitors aren’t actively buying.
They’re browsing.
Cold outreach starts from intent instead of attention.
3) Scaling noise early makes things worse
Posting more, launching harder, or boosting posts early doesn’t fix:
unclear positioning
fuzzy ICP
weak messaging
It just amplifies them.
Cold outreach forces precision:
every message tests your positioning
every reply sharpens your ICP
every conversation improves your offer
Only after this does content, SEO, and ads make sense.
Posting, content, SEO, and ads are powerful channels.
They’re just not good first channels.
The order that worked for me:
talk to your target audience
improve your offer
talk some more
fix churn + onboarding
now you start stacking other channels
That’s exactly how I grew my tool from $0 to $500 MRR as an early-stage B2B SaaS founder.
If you’re wondering, here’s proof.
Happy to answer questions or go deeper on any part of the process.
great order of operations. i usually frame it as learn channel first, scale channel second. if icp + offer arent crisp, launch platforms just amplify noise.
Spot on
Strongly agree on the 2 way ICP engagement from Reddit- will be checking out Bazzly
Hope this was useful! Cheers mate
Many entrepreneurs, myself included, confuse action with knowledge at the onset of their journey. ~
The phrase about posting being broadcasting hits home. Likes and impressions may make you feel like you’re making progress, but they don’t make you deal with the why behind not buying. The difficult conversations we avoid can help us better position ourselves and evaluate the gaps in the ICP.
As far as I can tell, cold outreach is not merely a distribution channel, but also a product discovery tool. When you craft 20 different, but similar messages, and only 2 get thoughtful replies, the delta between those versions is usually more valuable than a dashboard. It quickly enhances language.
I also like the order you have given. We noticed the same tendancy.
Dull messaging got buried in noise.
One-on-one conversations revealed the actual intent.
Only then did content and launches begin compounding instead of staying flat.
I would be interested to hear at what transition point you would suggest that signals are sending to the effect of “okay, this is no longer learning, it is time to turn up the volume”. Is it the rate of replies, closes, retention, or something else that is more qualitative?
When you get consistent replies and signups from cold outreach, and it's average or above average that means you've got it figured out and it's time to scale it. The reply rate depends on platform and niche.
Great breakdown — especially the point about conversations before scaling channels. We’ve seen the same in practice while growing niche brands organically.
We documented a similar early-stage distribution experiment at vedic farm.
Would love your thoughts on combining cold outreach with SEO once intent is validated.
The only SEO I've done is Reddit SEO, and this type of SEO is way easier since you don't need any backlinks or creating blogs for months. SEO is a good channel to invest in long-term, but often as an early-stage founder you don't have the resources to do it.
How do you usually find people willing to talk to you? Do you offer something in return for interviews?
I haven't done sales calls, just chatting in DMs, but I assume it's the same.
You're building something that will solve their pain. If your offer is good, that's enough motivation for them to talk to you. If they don't want to talk, then your offer is not good enough for them.
posting without audience feels like screaming into the void
Yeah! And with cold outreach you don't need an audience, you can do it with 0 followers.
I tested this recently out of curiosity.
Ran a small prompt-based audit in project management and AI overwhelmingly defaulted to older tools (Asana, Trello, Monday).
Newer products barely surfaced unless the prompt was extremely specific.
Feels like AI discovery is real — just very biased right now.
This is so true. Early on I kept posting everywhere and getting likes but almost no real users. The moment I started direct conversations and cold outreach, the feedback was 10x more useful. It’s uncomfortable, but you actually learn what people care about instead of guessing. Reach feels good, but conversations convert.
Direct conversations might be uncomfortable at first, but it's what will move your business forward.
Thanks Filiip for your insights on distribution. I have a few questions -
"talk to your target audience" - where should one do this? where do you actually start?
Depends where your target audience hangs out. For me it was X and Reddit. I was manually scrolling, finding them and sending a DM. Now I've built a tool that does this for me on Reddit, but on X I'm still doing it manually.
I love Reddit. It’s so simple to go viral on Reddit but not easy, and just one viral post can bring you 1000s of customers.
David gained 81,000 views, 10,000+ upvotes, and $15k+ from a single viral post on Reddit.
It’s not easy because it’s so hard to self-promote products. Often, moderators detect and delete posts or ban users from the subreddit.
I collected over 100+ self promotion post that has 100 of upvote without being banned, its help a lot.
Otherwise, i also love. Twitter (X), SEO, Tiktok marketing, Insta, Producthunt.
This will help a lot: www.marketingpack.store