Growth idea action plan
Subreddit survey swap: trade project feedback for responses
A founder said they posted a survey in their target audience’s subreddits, offered project feedback in return, and then shared the MVP with respondents — claiming this helped them reach ~100 users in two weeks.
Why this can grow a startup
Surveys fail when they feel extractive. The swap (“I’ll give you something valuable too”) makes participation feel fair, and it increases response quality because the respondent invests real effort. It also creates a clean follow-up path: the people who answered your survey are the exact people you should invite into the MVP. You’re not “marketing”; you’re continuing a conversation they opted into. Operator lens: keep surveys short and specific. Ask about current workflow + willingness-to-pay signals, not feature wishlists. Offer a tight return: 3 bullet feedback points, a teardown, or a benchmark. Track respondents and always close the loop with what you learned (that post becomes credibility for the next cohort).
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. For acquisition, I would keep the first test narrow enough that a clear yes or no is possible. Broad reach is not useful if the signal is muddy. For this tactic, I would watch Reported result: ~100 users in two weeks from subreddit survey + feedback swap (reported) before putting more time or budget behind it.
Action plan
- Define one narrow startup segment where subreddit survey swap: trade project feedback for responses can create a measurable lift.
- Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Reddit and Communities channel.
- Use the evidence from news.ycombinator.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: Reported result: ~100 users in two weeks from subreddit survey + feedback swap (reported).
- Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.
Source-backed example
In a Hacker News post about growing a SaaS to 4k users in ~5 months, the author said a subreddit survey + offering project feedback in return helped them reach ~100 users in two weeks, then they shared the MVP with participants (reported).
Result: Reported result: ~100 users in two weeks from subreddit survey + feedback swap (reported)
Source: news.ycombinator.com
Last checked: June 1, 2026 01:15 GMT+0800
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