Your SaaS doesn't always need more traffic. It might need better discovery.

I've been noticing something interesting while looking at how early-stage products try to get their first users.

A founder launches.

Gets some traffic.

Maybe even gets people signing up.

Then the growth slows down.

The immediate reaction is usually:

“We need more marketing.”

But I'm starting to think that's often the wrong question.

If the people discovering your product aren't the people actively experiencing the problem you solve, increasing traffic only gives you more of the wrong visitors.

That's why I've become increasingly interested in community-driven discovery.

Not:

“Which platform has the biggest audience?”

But:

“Where are people already talking about the problem?”

That's a very different question.

And it changes how you approach content, communities, outreach, and even what you say about the product.

Reddit is a particularly interesting example.

The communities with the biggest member counts aren't necessarily the most valuable ones.

Sometimes a much smaller community contains exactly the people you need.

I've been studying this from the perspective of how products become part of conversations instead of interrupting them.

There's a lot more to it than dropping a link and hoping for clicks.

Curious about something:

When you're trying to get your first users, do you start with the platform you want to market on, or do you start by finding where your potential customers are already having conversations?