Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, a potential client approached me with what seemed like a dream project: build a comprehensive marketplace platform with a substantial budget. They wanted to test if their idea would work before fully committing. I said no.
Here's the thing - most founders get pre-launch acquisition completely backwards. They're asking "How do I get users before I have a product?" when they should be asking "How do I validate demand before I build anything?"
After working with dozens of startups and watching the no-code revolution unfold, I've learned that your first MVP shouldn't be a product at all. It should be your marketing and sales process.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why traditional pre-launch strategies waste time and money
The manual validation approach that actually works
How to build an audience before building a product
Real tactics for sustainable growth from day zero
When to actually start building (spoiler: it's later than you think)
The approach I'm about to share isn't just theory - it's what I now recommend to every startup client, and it's saved them months of development time and thousands in wasted budget.
Industry Reality
What every startup founder has been told
If you've spent any time in startup circles, you've heard the standard pre-launch playbook. It goes something like this:
Build an MVP quickly - Get something functional out there fast
Create a landing page - Capture emails and generate buzz
Launch on Product Hunt - Get that validation and traffic spike
Content marketing - Start blogging and building thought leadership
Social media presence - Post consistently across platforms
The logic seems sound: build something minimal, put it out there, and see if people want it. The no-code movement has made this easier than ever - you can literally build a functional app in weeks with tools like Bubble or create landing pages in hours with Framer.
But here's where this conventional wisdom falls short: you're optimizing for building, not for learning. Even with AI and no-code tools, creating a functional platform takes significant time. A two-sided marketplace? That's still months of work, even with the best tools.
The real issue isn't technical anymore - it's knowing what to build and for whom. Most founders are solving this backwards. They're asking "Can I build this?" when they should be asking "Should I build this?"
This traditional approach treats validation as something you do after building, when validation should determine whether you build at all.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The project I mentioned earlier was a perfect example of this backwards thinking. The client had identified a problem in their market and wanted to build a comprehensive solution. They had budget, enthusiasm, and a solid technical plan.
But when they told me "We want to see if our idea is worth pursuing," every red flag went up. They had no existing audience, no validated customer base, no proof of demand - just an idea and enthusiasm.
I've seen this story too many times. Founders spend months building something technically impressive that nobody actually wants. They confuse "can we build it?" with "should we build it?"
The harsh reality I shared with them was this: If you're truly testing market demand, your MVP should take one day to build, not three months.
They wanted to use the latest AI tools and no-code platforms to build fast. But even "fast" in this context meant significant time investment before any real validation. That's not an MVP - that's a product.
Here's what I told them instead: your first MVP should be your marketing and sales process, not your product. Distribution and validation come before development. Always.
This client taught me something crucial about the modern startup landscape. In the age of AI and no-code, the constraint isn't building anymore - it's knowing what to build and for whom. The tools have solved the technical problems, but they've made the strategic problems even more important.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of jumping into development, here's the approach I now recommend to every startup client. It's what I call the "Manual First" strategy:
Day 1: Create Your Validation Landing Page
Don't build your product - build a simple landing page or Notion doc explaining your value proposition. Focus on the problem you're solving and how you'd solve it, not the actual solution.
Week 1-2: Manual Outreach
Start reaching out to potential users on both sides of your marketplace (if applicable). This isn't about selling - it's about validating that the problem exists and people are actively looking for solutions.
Week 3-4: Manual Matching
Here's the key insight: manually match supply and demand via email, WhatsApp, or even phone calls. If your idea is a marketplace connecting A to B, become the human connector first.
Month 2: Automation Decision Point
Only after proving demand manually should you consider building automation. This is when you know what to automate because you've done it manually first.
The beautiful thing about this approach? You're building your customer base and understanding their needs before you write a single line of code. You're also generating revenue immediately if your model allows it.
I've guided three startups through this process now. In each case, what they learned during the manual phase was completely different from their initial assumptions. One client discovered their target market was entirely different from what they expected. Another realized they needed to flip their business model.
The key insight: your MVP should be your marketing and sales process, not your product. If you can't manually deliver value to customers, automating that process won't magically create value.
Manual Validation
Test demand with zero development - build waiting lists and validate manually before any coding
Audience Building
Start conversations with potential users immediately - understand their pain points before building solutions
Revenue Focus
Generate income through manual processes first - prove business model viability before automation
Build-Learn Loop
Use manual operations as product research - every customer interaction informs what to build next
The results from this approach have been consistent across every startup I've worked with:
Faster Time to Market: Instead of 3-6 months building, clients were validating and iterating in weeks. One client had paying customers within 30 days of starting manual operations.
Higher Success Rate: Manual validation catches problems early. Two of my clients completely pivoted their business model based on what they learned during manual operations - before investing in development.
Better Product-Market Fit: When you finally do build, you're building exactly what customers asked for. One client's automated platform had 80% feature utilization because every feature was validated manually first.
Immediate Revenue: Manual operations can generate revenue from day one. This changes the entire dynamic of your startup - you're not burning cash while building, you're generating it while learning.
The most important result? You fail fast and cheap. If manual operations don't work, automation won't save you. Better to learn that early than after months of development.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons I've learned from implementing this approach with multiple startups:
Distribution trumps product quality: A mediocre solution with great distribution beats a perfect product with no users
Manual operations reveal hidden complexity: What seems simple in theory becomes complex in practice - better to discover this early
Customer conversations change everything: Direct interaction with users reveals needs you never anticipated
Revenue validates better than surveys: People saying they'll pay and actually paying are different things
Automation amplifies good processes: If your manual process doesn't work, automation won't fix it
Timing matters more than features: Enter the market when customers are ready, not when your product is perfect
Build relationships before products: Your early customers become your best product advisors and advocates
The biggest mindset shift? Stop thinking like a product company and start thinking like a service company. Once you prove the service model works manually, then you can productize it.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Start with manual onboarding and customer success processes
Use tools like Typeform and Calendly to automate scheduling before building features
Create waiting lists with specific use cases rather than generic interest
Validate pricing by asking for payment commitments during manual phase
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce businesses:
Start with drop-shipping or manual fulfillment to test product demand
Use social media and manual outreach before investing in automated marketing
Test different customer acquisition channels manually before scaling
Validate inventory and logistics processes with small test orders