6 builders who never spoke to each other

Charge for it before it exists

Ask for real payment on a promise of delivery, and let the transaction settle the demand question while being wrong is still cheap. A card charge is the only answer that costs the buyer anything, which is why it carries information a survey response does not.

The method

1. 01

   Collect real payments for software that does not exist yet, then build it for the people who already paid.

2. 02

   Sell the thing before you build it, so the market answers the demand question while it is still cheap to be wrong.

3. 03

   Sell the product before it exists: ask for the card on a promise of delivery, and use the conversations that produces to check whether the full idea resonates.

4. 04

   Do not write a line of code until somebody has said they will pay for it, and better still take the money or a firm commitment up front.

5. 05

   Collect money before you build, and launch with those customers already on the books.

What it returned

• $5,000

  Alex Rainey took $5,000 in presales for the My AskAI chatbot builder before launch, and it reached $18,000 MRR within six months.

• Framed as the fix for wasting time, money and effort on a build nobody asked for.

• People handed over card details for a product that was not finished, which produced the first revenue and the first real user conversations.

• The founders' previous product, a collaborative party playlist intended for sale to bars, was built over several months and shipped to the app store. Nobody ever visited a bar to sell it and it never sold a single copy.

Sources

• Reflections on my time in Y CombinatorChris Frantz · chrisfrantz.com · 2022-08-22
• 2023 Year In Review | Corey HainesCorey Haines · corey.co · What went well · 2024-01-01
• Ideas I was right about | Corey HainesCorey Haines · corey.co · Idea: Watch rentals · 2024-06-11
• It's not enough to build a product that people wantJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Will people use it and pay for it? · undated
• Three reasons product launches failNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Product/audience fit · 2014-03-18
• No-Code: Custom GPTs, Getting Early Users, Million-Dollar Businesses - Trends.vcAlex Rainey · trends.vc · 🛠 How to Build No-Code Businesses · 2023-12-27
• Presales: Saving Time, Money, EffortDru Riley · trends.vc · 💡 Solution · 2020-12-14
• Bugfender: Scaling an Internal Remote Logger to €9,000/MonthJordi Giménez · failory.com · If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you change? · undated