Ask HN: How do you get your first users for an MVP?

If you describe your MVP using the following pattern: [customer profile] has [problem] so I built [solution] Then you should have an idea of who the product is for and then you can figure out where to find them. For example: Boat owners who store their boats at home don't have a convenient way to move their trailers around so I built a motorized trailer puller that is controllable using a smartphone so they can move their boats without using their vehicle. So I need to reach people who have boats on trailers. They are easy to find down at any boat ramp or marina. I could go down there and set up a prototype and show them how it works, get feedback, and maybe show them a QR code to join a mailing list. I could also go to boat shows, FB groups, subreddits, YouTube, etc. Do you have a customer profile you could share, and maybe people can offer suggestions for how to reach them?

Who did you talk to to validate the product design when developing your MVP? They are your first users.

I'm pretty new to this. I've built a few websites, but none of them have gotten much traffic yet. My current understanding is that there are roughly two approaches: 1. Find new/emerging demand, such as new Google search trends, build early, and let users discover you through search. 2. Build for an existing demand, where competition is already strong, and actively promote the product and build a brand through Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, communities, etc.

Sounds like maybe putting the cart before the horse? I wouldn’t suggest building an MVP until having in-depth conversation conversations with your target customers first. It’s called market validation. As entrepreneurs, many times, we assume we know what people’s pain points are in my experience has shown that that assumptions are often incorrect. I would suggest that you find your potential customers instead of trying to sell them or get them to try your product you first interview them to ensure that your MVP is what will solve their pain points

For me, social media and directories (like SaaSHub, Capterra etc.) are not working. Of course, you should try them and track the results — measure the traffic generated by each source. Be aware that logs may rotate, so make sure to check them frequently, save and analyse. In my case, the only source of traffic and registrations is recommendations from AI assistants, so I focus on GEO - structured data in the source, proper indexing in Bing and Google. I am running a small-scale project without a marketing budget, so this is more of an observation than a conclusion based on proven, repeatable statistics.