3 builders who never spoke to each other

Soft launch into the two or three rooms that matter

For a narrow product, post it into the handful of online communities where that exact audience already gathers rather than the general startup aggregators, which will ignore it. However specific the niche, there is a subreddit and a set of groups full of them, and for an obscure enough market that soft launch can carry the whole thing.

The method

1. 01

   For a product aimed at an obscure niche, a soft launch into the two or three online communities where that niche already gathers can carry the whole thing, and you add paid tiers only after usage starts moving.

2. 02

   Go find your first users in the narrowest online communities your customer already belongs to, because however specific the audience is there is a subreddit and a set of Facebook groups full of them.

3. 03

   Launch into a group that already exists rather than to nobody: post it once to a large niche community you belong to.

4. 04

   Seed the first subscribers of a local newsletter by posting it into the Facebook and Reddit groups where residents already gather.

5. 05

   Post a consumer app to the specific subreddits its users read; the general startup aggregators will ignore it

What it returned

• $80

  Chat Stats was launched with a few subreddit posts in December, got a paid tier in April once usage ticked up, and reached about $80 a month on essentially no other promotion.

• 2,500

  Mike Benitez shared The Merge with a Facebook group of roughly 2,500 fighter pilots at launch and immediately had 300 subscribers.

• Zue's illustration is that even an audience as odd as plumbers who play Dungeons & Dragons would have a subreddit and around twenty Facebook groups

• Subreddit posts drew upvotes and positive comments while the Hacker News submission went nowhere

Sources

• How my behavior changing iPhone app made $1,673 in the first 3 weeks.Nathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · 2012-01-11
• Friday Feature: Lookout MediaLouis Nicholls · sparkloop.app · ✏️ Steal this for your newsletter · undated
• Friday Feature: The MergeMike Benitez · sparkloop.app · 🙋 How The Merge does it · undated
• Chapter 5: Getting Your First Customers - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Forums and IRL conferences · 2017-01-19
• The Long Road to Passive Income Part 3: Expectations vs RealityCory Zue · coryzue.com · A Second Product · 2018-07-24
• Using Coding Skills to Make Passive IncomeCory Zue · coryzue.com · The transcript · 2025-01-14