Today's issue we are going to talk about validating your idea and finding initial traction with targeted outreach.

This will start by finding ONE qualified prospect.

I know a lot of you signed up to learn how to send 1000 cold emails a day and get 100 replies.

But every successful cold email campaign starts from just one successful conversation.

By having one conversion at a time, you'll find out:

• Are you selling the right thing?

• Are you selling the right thing to the right people?

• Are you selling the right thing to the right people at the right time?

Understanding the final question is crucial, and while these early conversations might not scale, but they will help you understand their problem and situation, and help you tune in on your ideal targeting so you can scale up.

How do you get answers to that question?

Don't build an MVP, launch, improve, and wait…

Use targeted outreach instead.

Why you shouldn’t validate with an MVP

The traditional advice is to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and ask people to try it.

While this can work, in practice, this doesn't work too well for most people.

Because most people can't build a truly minimal MVP. This is a common issue that many startup experts also discuss.

“ If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.” — Reid Hoffman

Think about it, the point of MVP is to ask people if your idea is something they want.

So what's the easiest way to validate your idea?

Ask.

Targeted outreach, cold or warm, is exactly what you need, because you can start a conversation and ask them questions.

I’ve boiled down the difference in the flow chart below, you can see how starting from targeted outreach gives you much quicker feedback loop. You can go from POC (proof of concept) to a market-validated, launch-ready product in a couple weeks.

How to validate with targeted outreach

When I first started indie hacking, it took me 6 months to build an "MVP" and get my first user on the free app, only to find out 2 years a later there's no real demand for something I've built.

But in 2023, I’ve validated (or invalidated) 3 different ideas, all of them started with targeted outreach.

If I were to do it again today, here's what I'd do exactly.

Step 1 - Find people facing the problem you are solving

First, you gotta find ONE person who has this problem.

Right now it's not the time to think about scaling, just find one and start there.

The reason for this is that out of the 7 billion people there’s at least one person who's literally pulling their hair out right now because of the problem you are trying to solve. (If there’s not then you need a new idea)

Below are the most common places you can find that one users:

• Community forums. (Facebook, Reddit, Discord)

• Competitor's review section

• Google maps if you are selling local

• Social Media (Linkedin, X)

• Directory sites (ProductHunt, Microlaunch)

I also gave specific suggestions to 100+ other founders starting out on Twitter last Wednesday, you can see them here if you need more ideas.

The next step is important - you gotta find people who have your problem RIGHT NOW.

This is different from people who might have your problem.

For example, PressPulse is designed for people who already use HARO. To validate this, I looked for individuals actively discussing HARO on social media or posting jobs related to it. I also checked Facebook/LinkedIn forums for business owners and bloggers seeking PR and backlinks.

This is very different from people who could potentially benefit from HARO, which is literally every business owner out there. This approach narrowed my list down and increased my success rate up by 1000x.

Step 2 - Pitch their desired outcome

Step 2 is pretty simple, you offer to solve this problem you know they have, to get them their desired outcome.

However, this is when most founders do it wrong.