We built a smarter founder discovery system — then realized we were making it too complicated

One thing I keep noticing with founders:

Building is getting easier.

Finding the right people after you build is not.

A lot of founders can ship an MVP in days now.

But then the real questions start:

• Who actually needs this?

• Where are those people already talking about the problem?

• Which users are worth reaching out to?

• Am I targeting the wrong ICP?

• Is the problem real, or am I just seeing polite interest?

That’s the part I’m becoming more interested in.

We’ve been experimenting with a new OPBO workflow for founders who already launched:

Product → Problem → Real conversations → Potential users → Customer evidence

Instead of giving another generic “go post on Reddit / X / LinkedIn” recommendation, the goal is to find people who are already publicly talking about the problem your product solves.

Then comes the important part:

Did they reply?
Did they care?
Did they try it?
Did they pay?

Because a list of leads is not validation.

A real reaction is.

A trial is stronger.

A payment is stronger still.

This is why I think “after launch” deserves its own validation workflow.

Before launch, the question is:

Should I build this?

After launch, the question becomes:

Who actually needs what I built?

And that second question may be even more important.

We’re testing this now inside OPBO with a small group of founders before turning it into a full product.

#buildinpublic #startups #founders #SaaS #customerdiscovery #validation #AI