How to Find People Asking for Your Product

The short version

Most first customers do not come from a launch post. They come from replying, usefully, to people who are already asking for something like what you built. Those posts are public and many are still unanswered. Once you know where to look, finding them by hand takes about five minutes a day.

Step 1: Search for the question, not your product name

Nobody asks for your product by name before they have heard of it. They describe the problem or name a competitor. Search for phrases such as:

"alternative to" plus a competitor's name
"is there a tool for" plus the problem
"anyone know a tool that" plus what it should do
"how do you" plus the task, plus the thing that annoys them

Reddit is the obvious place. Hacker News (the Ask HN posts), Stack Exchange's Software Recommendations, and Indie Hackers are worth a look too, because people there ask the same questions in different words.

Step 2: Sort by new

Sort the results by newest. A question from a few hours ago is still open. A year-old one is a lesson, not a lead: the person has moved on and the thread is already full of answers.

Step 3: Look for posts nobody has answered

Open each result and check the comment count. Zero or one comment usually means the person is still waiting, and a useful answer will be noticed. A post with forty comments is crowded and your reply will sit at the bottom.

Step 4: Answer the question first, with no link

Write the useful part first. If you know the answer without your product, give it. If your product is not the right answer, say what is. Do not put a link in the first reply. A reply that helps stands on its own, and one that opens with a pitch reads as an ad.

Step 5: Mention yours once, and only if it fits

If the person asks what you use, or your product plainly solves their exact problem, say so once, plainly, and say you built it. Do not hide that. One mention, no link unless they ask.

Habits that protect your account

These are rules of thumb, not guarantees, and they are the ones FounderDive's own checks use.

Roughly nine helpful replies for every one that mentions your product.
Wait about two weeks before mentioning your product again in the same group.
Never paste the same link into two groups on the same day. Link spam across groups is a common way accounts get quietly hidden.
On a brand new account, spend a week answering questions before you mention anything.
Read each group's own rules first. Some ban self-promotion outright.

What to expect

Be realistic. Most search results are noise: opinion posts, other people's launches, threads that are months old. In an active niche you might find a handful of real asks a week. If your market is small, or your buyers are consumers who ask on other platforms, expect fewer. Some days there is nothing, and that is normal.

Where a tool helps

Steps 1 to 3 are the tedious part, and they are the same every day. FounderDive does them: it searches nine places, scores each post on whether it is asking for what you built, drops the old ones and the noise, and writes a reply from facts you have given it. A reply that cannot cite one of those facts is thrown away. It never posts anything itself. You read the reply, change a word if you like, and press send. It will not find a post every time, and when it finds nothing it says so.

Find people asking for your product, free →