The first version of VIDI wasn't a product.
The first version of VIDI wasn't a product.
It was a single page on a free domain.
No accounts.
No dashboard.
No pricing.
No real infrastructure.
Just an idea and a question:
"Does anyone actually care about this problem?"
What's interesting is that many things people associate with startups came later.
The product came later.
The features came later.
The positioning came later.
Even the thesis evolved over time.
The only thing that existed from day one was curiosity.
I'm glad I started that way.
Because building something small forced reality to answer much faster.
A lot of founders think validation starts after the product exists.
I'm starting to think it starts much earlier.
Sometimes all you need is a simple way to test whether the problem deserves more of your time.
14 weeks later, I'm still learning where that line actually is.
This is a good reminder that validation is not a launch event.
Sometimes a product being “ready” can actually make the learning slower, because you get attached to the thing you built instead of the problem you’re testing.
The hard part is staying curious enough to let reality change the product, positioning, or even the customer segment.
For anyone curious about what I've been building over the last 14 weeks:
https://vidicontract.tech/
Been following the progress for a while now. It's pretty cool seeing how much VIDI has evolved in just a few months. Keep going 👏
Appreciate that. Looking back, it's honestly surprising how much changed from those early versions. Still feels like day one in many ways though.
Yeah, that’s usually how it starts - simple things feel big at first. Good luck with what’s next 👏
Thanks, Ben. Appreciate the support.
Starting this small is underrated. A single page can tell you more truth than a full product ever will.
Did you notice any pattern in who actually cared about the problem?
More than anything, I noticed that interest came from places I didn't originally expect. That's one reason I try to be careful about making assumptions too early.
Great example of starting with signal instead of structure. Most people reverse it and overbuild before they ever learn anything real.
What stood out most in early responses—interest, confusion, or indifference?
Probably a mix of all three. The interesting part wasn't any single response—it was seeing which reactions kept repeating over time.
Love this approach—so many founders skip straight to building and miss how much signal a simple page can give.
Curious how your thinking changed once real users started reacting to it?
Less from any single piece of feedback and more from recurring patterns. Individual opinions can be noisy, but repeated behavior is much harder to ignore.
Really good reminder that validation is about exposure, not polish. A simple page can surface truth faster than a built product.
Curious—what surprised you most in the feedback you got early on?
Honestly, how differently people framed the problem. The feedback mattered, but the bigger lesson was realizing users often think about a problem very differently than the founder does.
Interesting. I remember checking out VIDI when it already had the login and registration flow. At what point did it evolve from that original single-page version into something that felt like a real product to you?
Interesting question. Honestly, not after a specific feature. It started feeling real once people began trusting it with actual contracts rather than just testing it out.
Makes sense. A lot of things in business start much smaller than people think. Looking at VIDI now, it's hard to imagine it started as just a single page.
Funny enough, at the time even the single page felt like a lot. Looking back, it was incredibly simple compared to where things are now.