How Algrow grows

Used Disboard.org to find Discord servers for a niche keyword. In the Money Mind server, searched chat for the word 'niches' and saw people repeatedly asking 'how do I find a niche?' / 'how can I replicate this niche?', which he took as demand. Start-over version: join every relevant server found on Disboard (e.g. all Blender and Cinema 4D servers for a 3D-assets tool), copy days of chat history into ChatGPT and ask it to list recurring pain points; recurring ones signal demand.

Joined voice chats in the target Discord server and shared his screen using the tool, without talking or pitching. Members tagged him asking 'what are you using?' and he replied that it was a tool he built. Did this for about a week straight, then kept sitting in the server screen-sharing for weeks.

After weeks of screen-sharing in the server, posted a waitlist link in the Discord chat: 'If you want to try the tool, just sign up here and once it's released, you'll get an email.' Start-over version: once you have enough interested people, collect emails on a waitlist, or start your own Discord server for the future product to funnel ideal customers in without risking self-promo bans.

Discord servers ban self-promo, and 'I've got this tool, please use it' reads as spam. Instead built rapport: when a member described the kind of channel they wanted, he used his tool to find it for them, without directly selling. Those people told friends; when he asked new users where they came from, they said a friend told them.

Gave every early user who helped validate the idea free access. Their friends had to pay, and when a friend was skeptical, the free user could show them the tool. Combined with posting in the communities, early users told friends and it 'blew up'.

With no coding background, dictated the idea to ChatGPT voice mode, pasted the code into Notepad, then VS Code (later Cursor), and hosted on Heroku. Built in about a week. The first user got an application error but could still use the core features.