How to Get Your First Users Before You Build Your MVP

Most new founders assume they need something built before they can attract users. In reality, the opposite is true.

The most successful founders build momentum long before they write a single line of code. They validate interest early, test their assumptions through real conversations, and use those insights to shape what eventually becomes their MVP. This early user work saves money, avoids unnecessary features, and makes fundraising far easier because you can show demand rather than claim it.

So if you are wondering how to get your first users without a product, this guide walks you through exactly what to do.

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1. Why finding users early matters

Getting early users before you build gives you three major advantages:

• You validate demand quickly You find out fast whether the problem you want to solve is painful enough for people to care.

• You build the right thing Conversations with early users shape your feature priorities and eliminate guesswork during MVP development.

• You make your idea more fundable Investors love to see traction signals. Even a small, engaged group of early users is more convincing than a polished pitch deck.

Done well, early user engagement becomes the foundation of your entire product direction.

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2. Start with a clear value proposition

It is much easier to attract early users when you can explain your idea in one simple, compelling sentence. If you cannot articulate the problem you solve and who you solve it for, it will be difficult for potential users to understand why they should care.

A clear value proposition should cover:

• The problem
• Who experiences it
• The benefit of solving it

For example:

Helping small e-commerce founders identify why visitors abandon their checkout so they can recover more revenue.

To test your clarity, tell people about your idea and watch their reaction. If you find yourself over-explaining or refining mid-sentence, it probably needs simplification. A good value proposition sparks questions, not confusion.

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3. Who your first users should be

A common early mistake is speaking to people who are supportive rather than people who truly feel the problem. Friendly conversations feel encouraging, but they rarely give you the insight you need. Your goal at this stage is not validation, it is truth. Anything else could cost you unnecessary time and money. That means you need to seek out people who experience the problem regularly and have a real reason to care about a better solution.

Here is who your first users should be:

• People who feel the pain often These are the individuals who experience the problem weekly or even daily. They usually have strong opinions and can clearly describe what is broken.

• People who currently use workarounds Anyone who has hacked together spreadsheets, manual processes, or separate tools to solve their problem is already showing demand. Workarounds are one of the strongest early signals that a market exists.

• People who have budget or decision-making power (for B2B) If you are targeting businesses, you want early conversations with people who could realistically buy. Even if your first users are not your final customers, you need feedback from those who hold the budget.

• People who adopt new tools if it saves them time or money Every market has early adopters. These individuals try new tools quickly and are willing to give thoughtful feedback. Winning one of them early can shape your whole product direction.

And here is who to avoid:

• Friends who simply want to support you Their feedback is well-intentioned but almost always biased. They want you to feel encouraged, which means they will not give you the sharp insights you need.

• Industry tourists These are people who float around an industry without working in the problem space. They often give interesting opinions but cannot give you concrete, experience-based insight.

• People who say "that sounds cool" Excitement is not validation. You are looking for people who feel a need, not people who like an idea.

• Anyone too far removed from the problem If they cannot articulate the pain, describe their current process, or explain why it matters to them, they are not the right early user.

The quality of your early users shapes the quality of your MVP. Speaking to the right people now saves you months of building the wrong thing later. Remember: you are not building for everyone. Your first users should be a narrow slice of the market with a sharp pain.

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4. Start with your existing network

One of the quickest ways to get early traction is to reach out to people you already know. You are not selling them anything at this stage, you are simply asking for insights.

Reach out to:

• Colleagues from past roles
• Friends who work in your target industry
• People you know who might introduce you to someone relevant

A simple message might look like:

I’m exploring a problem space around [problem]. You’re close to this world, so I’d love to ask you a couple of quick questions to understand it better. Would you be open to a short chat?

This approach works because people are often willing to help when you make a small, clear ask that respects their time.

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5. Cold outreach that earns attention

If your network is limited or you want to reach very specific types of users, cold outreach can be incredibly effective when done well.

How to research the right people

Look for those actively talking about the problem you solve. LinkedIn, X, Reddit, industry forums, and even product review sites can be goldmines for finding your target user.

How to write outreach that works

Your cold outreach should be:

• Short
• Personal
• Value-driven
• Curiosity-led

Something like:

I’m speaking with people who struggle with [problem]. You seem close to this space, so I wondered if you’d be open to sharing how you’re currently approaching it. I’m not selling anything, just trying to learn.

Aim for conversations, not signups. You want to gather insights, not push a product that does not exist yet.

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6. Use communities to find early believers

Great early users often come from communities built around the problem space you are exploring.

Try:

• Niche subreddits
• Slack and Discord groups
• Facebook groups
• Industry forums
• Founder communities

The key is to contribute before you pitch. Answer questions, share insights, demonstrate that you care about the problem.

Once you have built some trust, share that you are researching a specific challenge and looking to speak with people who experience it.

Early adopters love being part of something from the start, especially when they feel heard.

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7. Create something simple people can react to

You do not need a product to get people interested. You simply need something that explains the idea clearly and invites early engagement.

Options include:

A landing page

A single page with a clear headline, a short explanation, and a waitlist or early access form.

A survey

A conversational Typeform asking about pain points, priorities, and current workarounds.

A Notion page or Figma mockup

Show a concept visually so people can better understand what you are exploring.

Always include a clear action

Whether it is Join the waitlist, Share your feedback, or Book a quick chat, make next steps obvious.

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8. Talk to people directly

Nothing replaces real conversations. If you can speak to 10-20 people who experience the problem you want to solve, you will uncover patterns that shape the earliest version of your product.

Tips for successful discovery conversations

• Ask open questions
• Avoid leading the user
• Try not to pitch too early
• Focus on problems, not features

Good discovery conversations should feel like you are learning, not selling.

Questions to guide your calls

• What is the biggest frustration in this area for you?
• How do you currently solve it?
• What would make your life easier?

The insights you gather here are invaluable. They help you understand which features truly matter, which assumptions are wrong, and what people actually care about. This is the foundation of a strong MVP.

What to track from early conversations

Good note-taking is one of the most underrated parts of early validation. Without it, you rely on memory, which smooths over details and hides the real patterns.

Here is what you should consistently track:

• Recurring problems If multiple users bring up the same issue without being prompted, that is a strong signal of what your MVP should focus on.

• Current workarounds Anything users are doing manually or hacking together is evidence of real demand. These are often the first workflows worth replacing.

• Frequency of the problem How often the pain occurs matters just as much as the pain itself. Problems that happen daily are far more valuable to solve than those that happen once a year.

• Severity of the pain A simple low, medium, high scale helps you prioritise. High-severity pains often indicate strong willingness to try something new.

• Language and phrases users repeat These become gold for landing pages, ads, and investor pitches. Use the words your users already say; they resonate more than anything you write from scratch.

• Workflows and behaviours Understanding how people actually work reveals where the friction is. This helps you design a product that fits into their existing habits rather than disrupts them.

• Tools, hacks, or solutions they’ve tried and abandoned These stories highlight gaps in existing products and show where competitors fall short.

Keeping structured notes like this turns scattered conversations into clear patterns. Later, when you start defining your MVP, you will be able to trace every key decision back to real user insight rather than intuition.

This level of tracking is what separates guesswork from confident product planning.

How to avoid biased conversations

Early users want to be encouraging. If you ask hypothetical questions about a product that does not exist yet, they will often tell you what they think you want to hear. That leads to false validation and wasted time.

Avoid questions like:

• Would you use something that solves this?
• If I built this, would you try it?
• Do you think this is a good idea?
• How much would you pay for something like this?

These questions force people into predictions, and humans are very bad at predicting their own future behaviour.

Better questions focus on past behaviour, because that is the strongest indicator of real demand.

Try questions like:

• Tell me about the last time this problem happened.
• How did you handle it?
• What have you tried already?
• What did that cost you in time, money, or frustration?
• Which part of the process annoys you the most?

These questions pull out real stories, not guesses. Real stories reveal urgency, pain, workarounds, and motivation, which will shape your MVP far more accurately.

What to do when feedback contradicts itself

At some point, users will tell you completely different things. One person wants automation, another wants control. One says they’d pay for it, another says they wouldn’t. This is normal, and it does not mean your idea is wrong.

The key is to avoid reacting to individual opinions and instead focus on patterns.

Here’s how to handle conflicting feedback without panicking:

• Look for consistency across conversations If only one person asks for a specific feature, treat it as a curiosity, not a requirement. Strong ideas are shaped by repeated behaviour, not one-off comments.
• Ignore opinions that have no story behind them If someone says, I'd definitely use this, but cannot describe a recent time they experienced the problem, it’s not real validation.‍
• Avoid chasing preferences that don’t touch the core problem Users will disagree on UI ideas, workflows, or "nice to have" features. These differences don’t matter yet. What matters is whether the underlying pain is strong and frequent.‍

• Prioritise pain intensity over personal preference A user with a painful, high-frequency problem is far more valuable than five users with mild, occasional frustration. Build for the users who feel the pain most.

Contradictions aren’t a sign to change direction. They’re a sign to slow down, look at the patterns, and make decisions based on repeated evidence rather than enthusiastic noise.

9. Build a small audience early

Consider documenting your early thinking publicly. Share what you are learning about the problem on LinkedIn or Reddit. You are not sharing product updates; you are sharing insights that resonate with the people you hope to attract.

Talk about:

• Problems you see
• Insights from early conversations
• Interesting data points
• Questions you are exploring

This attracts early users and builds a natural following of people interested in the challenge you are solving.

Invite people to join a small early feedback group or waitlist. These folks become your earliest champions.

10. Be scrappy

Think creatively about where your audience spends their time and go there unapologetically.

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In Verticode's early days, Tom joined cofounder matching groups to talk about the problems Verticode aimed to solve. Some of the very first founders we worked with came directly from those conversations. These were not glamorous marketing channels, but they worked. Scrappy approaches often do.

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Follow the same mindset: go where the right people gather, join the conversation, and share what you are exploring.

11. Look for genuine signals that people care

Not all interest is equal. Look for strong signals, not polite ones.

Weak signals:

• People say your idea sounds great but never follow up
• They like your posts without engaging privately
• They say they might use it one day
• They give vague feedback with no examples
• They agree to things but cancel or go quiet

These signals feel positive, but they rarely translate into traction.

Strong signals:

• People reply quickly to your outreach
• They want to jump on a call without you pushing
• They describe their problem in specific, emotional terms
• They share detailed stories about the last time this pain happened
• They ask to be updated or added to a list
• They refer someone else who has the same problem
• They complete your survey without any incentive
• They share your landing page or waitlist with others
• They get frustrated when you are slow to follow up
• Someone tries to pay you early or asks for a workaround so they can start sooner

These behaviours show urgency, not politeness. They tell you the problem genuinely matters to people.

When you spot a handful of users who act this way, you’re no longer guessing. You’re seeing proof that the idea resonates. Those are the people you should build alongside.

12. When you are ready to move to MVP development

How do you know when it’s time to build? You need enough evidence that you understand the problem and that real people care about the solution.

Here are the signs that you’re ready to move from validation to MVP Development:

• An engaged waitlist of around 20 to 100 people You don’t need huge numbers. Even a small group that consistently opens your emails, replies to messages, and wants updates is a strong sign of early traction.

• 10 to 20 user conversations that reveal the same patterns When recurring themes keep appearing across interviews, you have the clarity needed to define your first feature set.

• People expressing frustration with the current options If users describe painful workarounds or say they’d switch the moment something better exists, that’s real demand.

• People asking for timelines The moment users start saying Let me know when I can try this or When will this be ready, it’s a clear signal that your idea resonates.

• A clear problem and a simple first version You should now understand which features matter for day one and which can wait. This is the heart of an MVP: focused, not bloated.

• You can describe the product in one sentence If your value prop now makes sense to others without long explanations, you’re ready to build something tangible.

Remember, you don’t need perfect clarity. You only need enough consistency across feedback to confidently build a first version. If the same problems, behaviours, and frustrations come up across ten to twenty conversations, it’s time to build.

Reaching this point means you’ve reduced uncertainty and built confidence in what your MVP should actually do. Turning your insights into something real becomes the next logical step.

This is where a partner like Verticode helps founders move quickly. We take your validated insight, shape it into a clear product plan, and build an MVP designed around real user input rather than assumptions.

Ready to turn your early user insights into something real?

Talk to Verticode about building your MVP and bring your validated idea to life.

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