Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, a potential client approached me with an exciting opportunity: build a two-sided marketplace platform. The budget was substantial, the technical challenge was interesting, and it would have been one of my biggest projects to date.
I said no.
Why? Because they wanted to "test if their idea works" by building first and marketing later. This backwards approach is exactly why most SaaS launches fail catastrophically.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: your SaaS launch success has nothing to do with how good your product is. It has everything to do with whether you can get people to care about it before you build it.
After working with dozens of SaaS startups, I've learned that distribution beats product quality every time. The founders who succeed aren't the ones with the best code - they're the ones who crack the marketing puzzle first.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why building before marketing is the #1 SaaS launch killer
The exact validation framework I use with clients before they write a single line of code
How to generate demand for something that doesn't exist yet
The counterintuitive launch sequence that actually works
Real metrics from startups who got this right (and wrong)
Industry Reality
What every SaaS founder thinks they know about launches
If you've been reading SaaS launch advice online, you've probably heard the same recycled playbook a thousand times:
Build an MVP - Start with core features and iterate based on feedback
Beta test with friends - Get your network to try it and provide testimonials
Launch on Product Hunt - Aim for #1 of the day and ride the traffic wave
Create buzz on social - Post about your journey and build anticipation
Iterate and scale - Use user feedback to improve and grow
This advice exists because it's what successful companies share in their origin stories. But here's what they don't tell you: most of these "overnight successes" had been building audience and demand for months or years before their official launch.
The conventional wisdom assumes your biggest challenge is building the right product. Wrong. Your biggest challenge is building the right audience first. Every hour you spend coding without validated demand is an hour wasted.
I've seen this pattern repeat with every failed SaaS launch: brilliant developers who can build anything, but have no idea how to get their first 10 users who aren't their mom and college roommate.
The result? Beautiful products that nobody uses, sitting in the digital equivalent of an empty mall. Which brings me to what actually works...
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The client I mentioned in the intro came to me with a "simple" request: build a marketplace platform that would connect service providers with customers. They had the budget, the vision, and the enthusiasm.
They also had zero validated demand.
During our discovery call, I asked them a series of questions that made them uncomfortable:
"How many potential users have you spoken to?" (Answer: None)
"What's your plan for getting the first 100 providers?" (Answer: "We'll figure it out")
"How will customers find you?" (Answer: "SEO and word of mouth")
"What's your customer acquisition cost assumption?" (Answer: Blank stare)
This is the classic "build it and they will come" mentality that kills SaaS startups. They wanted to spend months building a complex platform without any proof that anyone wanted it.
The red flags were everywhere. No existing audience. No validated customer base. No proof of demand. Just an idea and enthusiasm - the two ingredients that guarantee SaaS failure.
I've seen this movie before. In fact, I used to make the same mistake when I started as a freelance web developer. I'd get excited about the technical challenge and ignore the fundamental question: does anyone actually want this thing to exist?
So I told them something that initially shocked them: "If you're truly testing market demand, your MVP should take one day to build - not three months."
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of taking their money and building a platform destined for failure, I walked them through my actual validation framework. Here's exactly what I recommended:
Day 1: Create a Simple Landing Page
Not a product - a landing page. Explain the value proposition in simple terms. Add an email capture form. Write the copy as if the product already exists. This tests your messaging and gauges initial interest.
Week 1: Manual Outreach
Start reaching out to potential users on both sides of the marketplace. Don't mention the product yet. Ask about their current pain points and workflows. You're not selling - you're learning.
Week 2-4: Manual Matching
Here's where it gets interesting. Instead of building automation, do the matching manually via email or WhatsApp. Yes, it doesn't scale. That's the point. You're testing if people actually want what you're offering before you automate it.
This approach follows a principle I learned from working with dozens of startups: your MVP should be your marketing and sales process, not your product.
The Distribution-First Framework
While doing manual validation, you're simultaneously building the marketing engine:
Document every user conversation publicly on social media
Write about the problems you're discovering
Share insights about your target market
Build relationships with potential customers before asking for anything
This isn't just validation - it's audience building. By the time you're ready to launch, you already have people invested in your success.
The Proof Point
Only after proving you can manually facilitate 50+ successful matches should you even think about building technology to automate the process. At that point, you're not building a product hoping for demand - you're building automation for proven demand.
This framework has saved multiple clients from expensive mistakes and helped others launch with pre-validated product-market fit.
Key Insight
Your first MVP should be your marketing process, not your product. Test demand through manual processes before building automation.
Validation Framework
50+ manual transactions before any coding. If you can't facilitate it manually, automation won't save you.
Distribution Reality
Audience building starts before product building. Document your customer discovery process publicly to build invested followers.
Technology Last
Build technology to scale proven demand, not to test unproven assumptions. Automation amplifies what already works.
The outcome validated my approach perfectly. After implementing this framework, my client discovered something crucial: the market they thought existed didn't actually exist in the way they imagined.
Through manual validation, they learned that:
Service providers preferred existing platforms despite the fees
Customers weren't actively seeking a new marketplace solution
The real pain point was service quality, not discovery
Instead of spending months building the wrong thing, they pivoted to a completely different solution that addressed the actual market need. They ended up building a service quality verification tool instead of a marketplace.
This is the power of distribution-first thinking. It forces you to understand your market before you invest in building for it. The few thousand dollars they spent on validation saved them potentially hundreds of thousands in development costs.
Compare this to the conventional approach where they would have spent 3-6 months building, only to discover these same insights after launch - when it's exponentially more expensive to pivot.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons from this experience and similar SaaS launch projects:
Distribution beats product every time - The best product in the world fails without distribution. Start with how you'll get users, not what you'll build for them.
Manual validation is faster than MVP development - You can test core assumptions in weeks, not months. Don't use technology to test hypotheses.
Your competition isn't other products - it's the status quo - Most people aren't actively seeking new solutions. You're not just competing with alternatives, you're competing with doing nothing.
Customer acquisition cost assumptions are usually wrong by 10x - Until you manually acquire customers, you have no idea what it actually costs to grow.
Building audience and building product should happen simultaneously - Don't wait until launch to start marketing. Start marketing while you're still validating.
Most "MVP" advice focuses on the product, not the market - The real MVP is proving people will pay for your solution, regardless of how it's delivered.
Technical founders underestimate marketing complexity - Building the product is often easier than building the customer acquisition engine.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this approach:
Start with a landing page and email capture before writing any code
Manually onboard your first 50 users to understand their workflow
Document your customer discovery process publicly on social media
Build relationships with potential customers during validation phase
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce businesses validating new products or markets:
Test demand with pre-orders or waitlists before inventory investment
Use landing pages to validate product-market fit before production
Manually fulfill initial orders to understand customer expectations
Build email lists and social followings around product categories, not just products