The fastest way to find your first customers is not building more
Most founders think the next step is building.
More features
Better onboarding
Better UI
But early stage startups usually do not have a product problem.
They have a visibility problem.
The question is not
“What should I build next?”
The question is
“Where are the people already talking about the problem?”
Here is a simple exercise that changed how I approach startups.
Take 5 minutes and write this sentence.
“My product helps ____ solve ____.”
Example:
“My product helps SaaS founders find customers already asking for tools like theirs.
Now ask yourself one question.
Where would those people talk about that problem publicly?
Examples:
X
Indie Hackers
Forums
Discord communities
If the problem is real, you will start seeing posts like:
“Does anyone know a tool that can help with ___?”
“How are people solving ___?”
“Looking for recommendations for ___.”
Those conversations are the closest thing to demand signals you will ever see.
When I started doing this consistently, something interesting happened.
Customer conversations became much easier.
Instead of cold outreach, I was replying to people who were already looking for a solution.
That realization is actually why I built LeadSynth.
It monitors those conversations across platforms and surfaces them so founders can see who is actively asking for solutions.
If you want to see what that looks like you can check it out here:
But even without any tool, this exercise alone is powerful.
So try this today.
Write down:
The exact problem sentence your customer would say
The specific type of person who feels it
The places they would talk about it online
Then go look for those conversations.
You might realize your customers have been talking the whole time.
You just were not looking in the right place.
Curious to hear from other founders.
Where do you usually find your first users?
Indie Hackers
Cold outreach
Something else?
Good point. What strategy worked best for getting your first u
For me the biggest shift was moving from cold outreach to conversation based outreach. Instead of messaging random people who might need the product, I started replying to posts where someone was already asking for a solution to the exact problem I was solving. Those conversations convert much better because the intent is already there. Most of my early users came from places like Reddit, Indie Hackers, and X where founders openly discuss their problems. That pattern actually became the foundation for LeadSynth since it helps surface those high intent conversations automatically.
These posts pull me in because I’m starting to see this first hand.
Months working on the product, the highs and lows… then you finally launch. And then… nothing.
That’s when the real work starts. Getting the product in front of people. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
I’m learning that going to market is the real test of both the product and the founder’s conviction.
Still learning. Still experimenting.
That moment is brutal but it’s also where most founders learn the most. Launching often feels like the finish line but it’s really the starting line for distribution and customer discovery. What helped me was shifting from “how do I promote this” to “where are people already talking about this problem.” Once you start joining those conversations the feedback and early users come much faster. That realization is actually what led me to build LeadSynth because I kept seeing founders manually searching for those moments across different communities.
This is such an underrated insight.
Early founders often build in isolation, while the real demand signals are already visible in communities and discussions.
Exactly. A lot of founders spend months building in isolation when the best signals are already happening in public conversations. Communities like Reddit, Indie Hackers, and X are basically live market research if you know what to look for. Once you start watching those discussions you begin to see patterns around the problems people repeatedly struggle with. That is actually the observation that led me to build LeadSynth since it helps surface those demand signals across communities without having to manually hunt for them.