Overheard a Waterloo founder say "you just need to build it and they will come"... made me roll my eyes

I was at a Waterloo startup meetup last Thursday and this guy was pitching his app idea, saying he just needs to code it and users will magically show up. I remember thinking the exact same thing back in 2019 when I launched my Shopify analytics tool. Spent 4 months building and $2k on a fancy landing page before I realized nobody knew I existed. Ended up having to cold email 200 shop owners just to get 5 beta users. Has anyone else had that painful moment where you realize building is only 20% of the work?

2 comments

2 Comments

jones.grace15d ago

Oh man, that is painfully relatable. Building is the easy fun part, then you launch and hear crickets. I spent like 6 months on a little SaaS tool for freelancers, had it all polished and perfect, and basically zero signups after the first week. Had to force myself to start posting in Facebook groups and DMing random people just to see if the thing actually worked for anyone. The founder you overheard is in for a rude awakening, especially in this market where everyone and their dog is building something. Getting people to actually use your stuff is way harder than coding it, no comparison. Feels like everyone learns that lesson the hard way.

baker.phoenix15d ago

Does this whole "build it and they will come" thing ever actually work for anyone besides people who already have a huge audience? I think about all the indie hackers who spend months on SEO and content marketing before they ever write a line of code, and they STILL struggle. Meanwhile the tech bros in coffee shops act like getting users is just flipping a switch. The REAL trick nobody talks about is that most successful launches happen because the founder already had a network of people who trusted them BEFORE the product existed. Like that freelancer tool I tried building - I should have spent those 6 months talking to actual freelancers instead of perfecting my color scheme.