4 builders who never spoke to each other

Find the off duty rooms your buyers already sit in

Look for the informal venues where your customers talk without their professional hat on: niche subreddits, Facebook groups, Slack channels, industry forums. People describe their problems far more candidly in a place that is not tied to their employer, and the easiest audience to reach is one you are already a member of.

The method

1. 01

   Find the informal places your customers hang out off the clock, such as niche subreddits and Facebook or Twitter groups, because people speak more freely there than in professional settings.

2. 02

   Find where your niche already gathers and go there: subreddits, forums, Facebook groups, Slack groups.

3. 03

   Find the online places an industry already gathers, forums, Slack channels, subreddits and Facebook groups, then read them from the outside rather than joining the conversation.

4. 04

   Assume someone has already assembled your niche audience for you, then find the forum they sit in and post what you are building.

5. 05

   Prefer anonymous forums such as Reddit for this, because people describe their problems more candidly there than on networks tied to their professional identity.

What it returned

• 250,000

  A single announcement post in the 250,000-member r/Kanye subreddit reached the top and produced the first 500 pre-launch email signups; a repost days later in r/HipHopHeads added 500 more

• Reddit named as the best hunting ground because the volume of specific subreddits makes a niche community likely

• Having no audience and being in the wrong one are both on the founder's mistake list for Phoenix.

• He calls the method a sales safari and says a few hours of watching the chatter and processes inside one industry is enough for patterns to surface.

Sources

• ⭐️ The Grand Unified Theory of Product Ideation – Jakob GreenfeldJakob Greenfeld · jakobgreenfeld.com · Inorganic, top-down ideation · 2020-10-09
• How to choose an audience for your blogJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How do you choose an audience? · undated
• 0 to 100 Email Subscribers: A 28-Day Case StudyJustin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Your Action Plan · 2024-11-30
• Serve a niche market. Get more attentionHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · Audience · undated
• Spreading the Word: How to Do Marketing on a Shoestring Budget – The Bootstrapped FounderArvid Kahl · thebootstrappedfounder.com · The Power of the Water Cooler · 2020-06-11
• Phoenix: Failed to Keep It Stupidly SimpleEnrique Benitez · failory.com · What did you learn? · undated