The hardest part of building a SaaS isn't the code. It's finding the 10 people who actually need it.
I built something I thought people wanted. Shipped it. Posted in a few places. Got 70 visitors over several months. Zero customers.
The wake-up call was realizing my future users were already online describing the exact problem I solved. They just weren't on my landing page. They were on Reddit, Hacker News, Devto, Indie Hackers, and Lobsters.
Go find those conversations.
Pick 5-10 keywords that describe the pain. Not your product name, the problem itself. If you built an email tool, search "inbox overwhelmed" or "send emails faster," not your brand.
Search those keywords across communities. Reddit, Hacker News, Devto, Lobsters,... Filter to the last 7 days.
Look for buying signals in the posts:
- "Is there a tool that..."
- "I'm looking for..."
- "Currently using X but..."
- "How do you guys handle..."
- "Tired of..."
- "Alternative to..."
Reply to their posts. Ask what they're struggling with. Share what you've learned. If your product fits, mention it naturally. "I built something for this exact problem."
This got me my first users. Real conversations, real feedback.
The problem was time. I spent 1-2 hours daily searching, reading, filtering. I missed posts someone wrote at 3am about my exact problem space.
I created Painbase to take care of the scanning process. It monitors those communities on a set schedule. It applies AI to rate every post as either a buy signal or simple venting. When something seems relevant, it sends me a Telegram alert. It also recommends a response.
I still do the manual method when I have time. The tool just means I only spend time on conversations that matter.
You don't need any tool to start. Pick your keywords, set a timer for 30 minutes, read what people are saying right now.
What communities have given you the best leads? What keywords surfaced the most conversations for your product?
I like that your pricing research changed your product thinking instead of just your pricing.
The interesting shift is from asking "What features are missing?" to "Where does the user's job actually end?" If distribution is where people still leave your product to finish the workflow, that's a much stronger place to focus than matching competitors feature for feature.
Yeah, that's the part that changed everything for me. I was looking at my feature roadmap trying to figure out what to build next, and realized I was just copying what competitors had. The real gap was watching users export data from my tool and then go spend 20 minutes in a spreadsheet finishing the job
Glad it resonated.
Your reply made me think there's one strategic decision sitting underneath that shift which becomes much more significant as the product grows, but I don't think I can explain the reasoning properly in a thread without oversimplifying it.
If you're interested, what's the best email to reach you on?