Every day, countless founders waste their one shot at a first impression. They settle for whatever domain is available, pick something easy to spell, or worse - choose a name that actively confuses their market. Years later, they're stuck explaining their name instead of having it explain their
Last week, I ran a workshop with a friend who wanted to start a knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) business. When I asked him about his target customers' problems, something fascinating happened. He kept describing the solution he wanted to build: "Companies need a knowledge partner, not just arms
"What makes you different from [Big Company X]?" At MidFunnel, that question used to send me into a feature comparison spiral. You know the drill - frantically listing all the things your product does similarly (or slightly better) than the established players. But I’ve learned something recently.
Ever wished you could listen to a conversational breakdown of the "Scratch Their Itch" series instead of reading through all four parts? I've got you covered. Your audio companion to better audience research I've turned my entire four-part Reddit research series into an interactive
Most advice about finding startup ideas sounds a lot like, “Just talk to customers!” as if the perfect problem is waiting patiently for you to ask the right questions. But that advice is way easier to tweet than to actually do. If you've ever stared at your blank
When demand exists but dollars don't Let's play doctor for your SaaS. You've shipped. You've hustled up some traffic. Maybe you even have a nice pile of free signups. And yet… the paid user number isn't moving. This is the
I used to be way too attached to my work. Back when I ran a design sprint agency, every workshop ended with a ritual that made my stomach twist: we'd all stick our solutions up on the wall for everyone to see. Then came the vote. One idea
When most of us start building products, we begin with an idea: "I'll build a better project management tool" "I'll create an AI writing assistant" "I'll make a simpler analytics dashboard" "I'll disrupt [insert any
Praveen was doing Europe like he’d always dreamed — cheap flights, overnight trains, hostels full of strangers-turned-friends. He carried everything in a 20L backpack. No check-ins. No plans. Just a rail pass, a rough sketch of cities to hit, and the thrill of figuring it out along the way Meanwhile,
"Just one more competitor to check..." It starts innocently enough. A quick search here, a comparison there. But before you know it, you're three months deep with 47 Chrome tabs open, caught in an endless loop of research → doubt → more research. Each new tab promising the
You've heard it all, right? "Create a landing page first!" "No, talk to people first!" "Collect emails!" "Get pre-bookings!" "Build an MVP first!" It feels like everyone shouts different advice, leaving you stuck asking, "What are some
I understand why you'd want to copy a successful startup. It feels safe. When you see someone post their $10K MRR milestone on Twitter or share their journey on Indie Hackers, you know there's a real market. Real customers. Real revenue. Why take a chance on
A four-part guide to finding problems your customers will pay you to solve using Reddit audience research. Each part builds on the previous one, taking you from initial research to demand validation. Praise for the series: Part 1: Finding Real Customer Problems in the Wild Learn how to discover where
You already know the pain of staring at your analytics, wondering why your tweet/LinkedIn post/blog or product didn't resonate. You put in the hours, made educated guesses, and still found yourself feeling uncertain. I previously taught you how to validate startup ideas using Reddit. But here&
Last Tuesday, I caught myself doing something ridiculous. Copy text from Slack. Switch to TypingMind. Paste. Get AI rewrite. Copy again. Switch back. Paste. For the tenth time. That day. That's when I realized my daily frustration wasn't just annoying - it was trying to tell
"If you had to grow a SaaS with $0 marketing budget, what's your first move?" I see this question pop up constantly in founder communities. "We've built this amazing product, but we don't have cash for ads. How do we get
"Someone's already doing it" - the lie that kills great businesses before they start. Picture this. You walk into a party where everyone seems deep in conversation. Inside jokes are flying, groups have already formed, and your first instinct is to turn around and leave. That&
"We need more marketing!" That's what the SaaS founders insisted when we looked at their numbers. What they didn't realize? With their 0.2% conversion rate and $27 ARPU, they'd need nearly one million visitors (926,000 to be exact) just to
If you build it, they will do absolutely nothing. - Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) Six months of your life. Countless late nights. Thousands of lines of code. And then... silence. No users. No sales. Just the crushing realization that you might have built something nobody wants. If you're a
"I've sent 47 cold outreach messages this week trying to land customer interviews. Two people replied. Neither had time to talk." Sound familiar? That's why we're building a better research system: * In part 1, we mapped Reddit's hidden network to
"Looks interesting, but I wouldn't pay for it." If you're building products, you've probably heard some version of this soul-crushing feedback. You spend weeks or months crafting what you think is the solution, only to discover you're solving a problem
"Is this actually a pain point for you?" That's the kind of question that puts your research dead on arrival. Here's why: When you ask someone if they have a problem, you get their sanitized, rational self. But when you catch them actively struggling
“We just scheduled a demo with a potential user. They want to see the new sales dashboard for feedback. Can you have something ready by 2PM?” That Slack message from my founders hit me like a bucket of cold water. I looked at my screen: one barely-functional dashboard card, a