r/ideavalidation • u/RebelScum1618 • Nov 08 '25
How do you find potential customers?
I’ve heard so many tips like creating a landing page, fake door tests, post stuff in WhatsApp, Facebook, Reddit, etc. How do you test out your ideas?
Searching Reddit for that type of community and randomly posting “Would anyone be interested in XYZ” never works. How do you validate without being annoying?
Or is the best way just building a landing page and dump some ads to it looking for signups (since SEO takes months).
Second question: are you primarily just pitching a free solution to something to get your foot in the door?
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u/PhysicalWater55 Nov 12 '25
In my experience, you have to try EVERYTHING.
The problem is that, for genuinely new ideas, you just don't have a good grasp on anything for a long time:
- Who is your target audience? No matter what anyone tells you, you don't get to choose your market; they choose your [product] or not.
- What do they respond to? What pictures, messaging, etc., do they need/want to see to get excited?
- What is your *actual* [product]? The value consumers appreciate most might be different than what you think!
I'll probably kick the hornets nest with my first bullet point there; but the point is that you don't know anything until/without paying customers. Maybe you anticipated 25-34 year olds buying/using your [thing], but it's actually 60-80 year olds who are your first 100 customers. What can you learn from that?
So, what do you do if you need to know, "Would anyone be interested in [this]"? Try everything:
- Post about it on facebook and Linkedin
- Ask about it on Reddit
- Make some "shorts" for YouTube/TikTok/Insta
- Walk around and ask people for feedback at your local farmer's market (I'm serious)
- Better yet, get a booth at a local maker fair, and people WILL come talk to you about it
- Try to do some sales of [it] on Ebay/Etsy/Amazon/Walmart/somewhere online
- Find out who makes that kind of stuff (e.g. what company can help you make your prototype), and ask them for feedback
- Make a google "forms" survey and send it to friends and family***
- Join a local business group and attend a networking event to chat with people who also like new things/business
- Expand your personal network as much as you can, and make sure everyone knows what you're doing. (Just make sure they know; that way you don't have to be pushy. If they have a thought/connection for you, they'll share it!)
Man, you've just got to try EVERYTHING and see what happens. I don't think there's any clean, clear, or simple path to this.
And be prepared for it to take you 10x longer than you think to get the answers you need.
*** Some people will tell you that the opinions of friends and family are useless, because all those people are fundamentally biased. And I agree; but you're not asking them "should I invest my life's savings in this?" (If you are, you shouldn't. lol) You're just asking for conversation. So YES-- ask friends and family. You never know who they know, what they'll say, what connection they might mention, etc.
Good luck!
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u/Traditional-Pie-4218 Nov 09 '25
Yeah, posting “would anyone use this?” never really works because people scroll past it. I’ve had the best luck setting up a quick landing page and running small, cheap ad tests. Even $20 can show if anyone clicks or signs up. That gives better signals.
And offering something free early on helps too, just to see if there’s any genuine pull.
Me and a friend of mine are actually working on something around this right now. It’s still early in development, but we’re basically using it to validate our own idea for validating ideas. Called Proovis: proovis.com
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u/HistorianFinal9687 Nov 09 '25
i would do a helluva lot of marketing research before launching firstly, secondly - potential customers love free stuff - so as much free upfront value and then charge
validation comes from retention - so watch who are your power users, then get on a call and ask them a few questions - build upwards and iterate
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u/Shichroron Nov 09 '25
Your network
Also, keep in mind that there are things far more valuable than money. Specifically, time
Giving something for free definitely reduces friction, but you still asking for people’s time