Ask HN: How to Get Traction for Startup?

2 points by chaBha 5 years ago | 4 comments

I am founder of a bootstrapped startup and don’t necessarily have big network advantages that others have. I am making use of my network. To validate an idea, I created and emailed a lot of people. However, most people don’t respond back. Reddit and other forums ban surveys flat out.

So the question is, besides paid marketing and spending big, how to get traction and initial interest in my product?

What are channels and resources that can help validate the idea before I build it spending 3-4 months?

Cheers.

whomst 5 years ago |

I'm in a similar boat. What I'm working on is publisher tooling, so I've been reaching out to indie creators. I've been asking for interviews for product market fit. Everybody who accepted an interview asked to be a part of the beta but correspondence is slow because most people are busy doing other things at the moment, and what I'm doing is a pretty integral change to their workflow so conversion costs may be high.

Can you be more specific about what you are trying to develop? The more devout the users can be, the easier it is to build network effects from a smaller base.

alessandroetc 5 years ago |

No silver bullet solution. You've gotta hit all channels and see which ones get you the best traffic. Which channels work best really depends on the type of business you're building. Just toss spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. Then, when it does, throw more!

northpoleescape 5 years ago |

Thanks for asking. I feel this is a very important question and not talked a lot, especially for bootstrapped founders and solo entrepreneurs. Curious to hear as well what others think about getting traction.

mannylarcher 5 years ago |

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