Just started our closed beta. Nobody would upload their data. Here's why.

We thought the hardest part would be the product.

It wasn't.

We launched our closed beta for Crunchy last week. The feedback was encouraging. People got it immediately.

The use case was clear. The demo landed well.

Then came the wall.

"I'd love to use this but I can't upload work data to an AI tool."

Over and over again. Not because the product wasn't good enough. Because company policy wouldn't allow it.

We made a joke internally that our early adopters are the ones who ask for forgiveness not permission 😅 But joking aside, it told us something important. This isn't a product problem. It's a trust problem. People aren't refusing to use Crunchy. They're refusing to hand sensitive data to a tool they don't fully understand yet.

Two very different things with two very different fixes.

So we're going back to basics. Give users something safe to start with. Be clearer about what actually happens to their data. Build trust before we ask for anything sensitive.

The gap isn't what we built. It's the permission to try it.

Has anyone else hit this wall building in the AI space, and how did you get past it?