I'd spend weeks building, launch on Product Hunt, get some upvotes... then crickets. Meanwhile, real potential customers were out there on Reddit and HN literally asking "is there a tool that does X?" – and I had no idea.
So I built Needfind (https://needfind.app). Paste your product URL, and it searches Reddit and Hacker News for people who need what you built. It finds: - High-intent posts ("looking for a tool that...") - Pain point discussions (people complaining about the problem you solve) - Competitor complaints ("I wish [competitor] would...")
The fun part: I'm now using Needfind to find customers for Needfind itself. Eating my own dogfood, GitHub-style.
The community angle:
Building alone is hard. So there's a community directory where founders can list their products and help each other. Upvote products you like, leave tips on finding customers. Founders helping founders.
Would love feedback from HN. What signals do you look for when finding early customers? Any subreddits or sources I should add?