Build an audience first, or launch and grow later?
by•
This is probably one of the most debated topics in the startup world: Should you build an audience before you launch, or is it better to launch first and grow your audience afterward?
I’ve seen both approaches work, but each comes with its own set of challenges and rewards.
- Building an audience first means you're creating buzz, validating your idea, and nurturing a community of early adopters who are invested in your success. But it takes time, patience, and a lot of effort to keep the momentum going before you even have a product to show.
- Launching first lets you hit the ground running, gather real-world feedback, and iterate quickly. But without an existing audience, you might struggle to get those initial users and traction.
So, indulge me: Which approach did you take —or are you considering taking (those who haven't launched yet)?
- Did you build an audience before launching your product, or did you launch and then focus on growth?
- What worked (or didn't work) for you?
- If you could go back, would you do it differently?
Share your story with us so we can all learn from each other. There's someone here who could benefit from your experience.
-----
P.S: If you're a growth-stage founder struggling with churn or stagnant customer acquisition (usually because of poor positioning and messaging), I'd love to help.
I specialize in crafting impactful marketing strategies tailored specifically to your product so you can start seeing the results you deserve.
Connect with me on LinkedIn today. Can't wait to hear from you!
901 views
Replies
I think it can be a combination of both but its the whole chicken / egg quandary - I think the good thing about this platform is you can launch (fall flat) and then in multiple months or whatever it is - launch a new feature and implement the shortcomings from your previous (maybe poorly prepared) launch etc.
I would say depends on what your product is. You can build an audience and if your products TG isn't that audience then it won't really help you. But if your business is targetting your particular audience, then it makes sense to have a ready audience from day 1.
Sometimes, you just want immediate feedback and don't necessarily need a large audience for this.
The choice between audience-first or launch-first depends on your product. If trust and engagement matter (e.g., creator tools, B2C products), building an audience first helps with validation and organic traction. But it takes time. If solving a clear pain point (e.g., B2B SaaS), launching first allows for faster iteration. A hybrid approach works best—build micro-audiences, test demand with early signups, and launch quickly. No audience makes launching harder, but an audience without a product leads nowhere.
Arkiv
For my design system; Cabana, I built an audience first over on Medium (built it up to 72K followers over a few years, but you don't have to go that extreme ;) and then with a small CTA at the bottom of my articles to a early-bird waitlist. To be honest that's how I did a lot of my marketing via that channel. It doesn't have the reach though it used to I feel.
Best of luck, and any questions just reach out.
P.S. If you need a designer (I've been at this for 25+ years) hit me up https://gohaus.design/
I'd say audience first. But you can also start working on the product while building the audience.
That's what we do at ActorDO AI Assistant.
Audience first, but at the same time working and reiterating on product
AI Assistant for busy professionals ActorDO
We built an audience first! Tiktok has been an amazing outlet to organically grow our users and truly build a community while bootstrapped. One tip is to offer a waitlist for your product so your users have a place to go / will know exactly when your product is live (bonus points if your waitlist is a paid one).
Don’t wait until launch to start talking about what you’re building. Engage your audience early, share your journey, gather insights, and refine based on real feedback. Early engagement helps you avoid surprises post-launch. When your product resonates, your audience becomes your strongest advocates.
Remember, if there’s no demand, there’s no growth
I tried both. From my experiences, I prefer building an audience first, as this speeds up the launching & testing phase.
Sadly, being a maker is not something I can do for a lot of time on a daily basis, and building an audience requires a lot of resources (energy, time). But I noticed that for PostGod, the little audience building we did prior to the launch helped us a lot.
We launched CoreSight (second launch March 24!) with zero marketing spend and hit 1,000+ users purely through Product Hunt and Reddit. No audience built beforehand.
The honest answer is it worked, but it was slower and messier than it needed to be. Every early user taught us something we should have known before shipping. An audience would have given us that feedback without the guesswork.
If we were starting over, we'd probably do both in parallel. Ship early, but build the community at the same time rather than treating them as sequential steps.