Growth idea action plan
Three-week helpful residency in ICP communities
Spend a few weeks answering questions in the buyer's Slack or Discord rooms before mentioning the product at all.
Why this can grow a startup
Private communities work when the founder behaves like a participant, not an ad unit. One r/SaaS operator said the first meaningful traction came only after about three weeks of helping in Slack communities and Discord servers where the target users already spent time. Then, when the founder finally mentioned the product, people asked to try it. That sequence matters because trust is built before the ask. It also gives the founder better language for the product, because the pain is heard in the buyer's own words instead of through a synthetic ICP document.
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 three-week helpful residency in icp communities can create a measurable lift.
- Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Slack and Discord 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
A founder in r/SaaS said three weeks of useful participation in Slack communities and Discord servers produced the first 15 users, with 8 converting to paid, while LinkedIn cold outreach converted around 5 percent.
Source: Reddit /r/SaaS: SaaS Founder: How did you get your first 10–100 paying users? (reddit.com)
GrowthDex source hub: Reddit /r/SaaS: SaaS Founder: How did you get your first 10–100 paying users?
Last checked: 2026-05-30
Adjacent tactics in the same lane
If this page is close to your problem, these tactic pages usually belong in the same working set.
- Channel-specific notification queues for external feedback 2 shared channels · 1 shared stage
- Adjacent-tool ecosystem DM prospecting 1 shared channel · 2 shared stages
- Early reply window before thread crowds 1 shared channel · 2 shared stages
- Problem-thread reply before funnel build 1 shared channel · 2 shared stages
Related GrowthDex essays
- The waitlist should act like a working queue community-led growth, waitlists, founder-led sales
Read GrowthDex essays
The Blog turns real growth tactics into plain-English case studies by niche, channel, and buying situation.
Why this is worth your time
GrowthDex starts with tactics that founders, marketers, and product teams have actually tried. Each essay turns the evidence into a practical move you can test without pretending one case study is a guarantee.
Ian Goh has helped grow consumer platforms across Southeast Asia, India, and MENA. His work includes scaling Tiki to 100M+ users, doubling BIGO's MENA revenue in 7 months, and increasing OYO's direct booking share across 6 Southeast Asian markets.
- Helped scale Tiki to 100M+ users.
- Doubled BIGO's MENA revenue in 7 months.
- Raised OYO's direct booking share by 50% across 6 Southeast Asian markets.
Want help turning this into a growth system?
If you want someone to pressure-test this against your real market, Ian works with founders on growth, market entry, and operator-led distribution.
Work with Ian on growth advisory