Growth idea action plan
Problem-audience building before product ships
Build a following by publicly discussing the problem you plan to solve — not your product — so your first 100 users come from relationships forged in communities before launch day.
Why this can grow a startup
People follow problems they recognize, not products they haven't tried. By framing content around a shared pain point, the founder attracts an audience with built-in purchase intent. Conversations also double as customer research, surfacing language and objections that shape better positioning. This is distinct from build-in-public, which centers on the product journey; problem-first content centers on the audience's lived experience and earns trust before a product even exists.
Ian's take
From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. I would treat this as earning the right to be in the room, not dropping a campaign into a room. In community-led growth, the first job is to notice what people already care about, then bring a useful proof, tool, teardown, or question that makes the conversation better. I would run it small enough to learn quickly, then only scale the parts that real users repeat, save, reply to, or buy from. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.
Action plan
- Define one narrow startup segment where problem-audience building before product ships can create a measurable lift.
- Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Communities and LinkedIn channel.
- Use the evidence from reddit.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
- Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
- Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.
Source-backed example
SaaS founder on r/SaaS (March 2026, post titled 'The BEST SaaS marketing strategy in 2026 costs $0') — described the full playbook: talk about the problem publicly, share the messy decisions and mistakes (not changelogs), and let conversations in DMs and comment threads convert into early users. Reported building the entire pre-launch audience with zero budget solely from showing up daily and being useful in communities, with first 100 users coming entirely from relationships, not ads, SEO, or viral moments.
Source: reddit.com
Last checked: March 23, 2026
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