Build an audience first, or launch and grow later?
by•
This is probably one of the most debated topics in the startup world: Should you build an audience before you launch, or is it better to launch first and grow your audience afterward?
I’ve seen both approaches work, but each comes with its own set of challenges and rewards.
- Building an audience first means you're creating buzz, validating your idea, and nurturing a community of early adopters who are invested in your success. But it takes time, patience, and a lot of effort to keep the momentum going before you even have a product to show.
- Launching first lets you hit the ground running, gather real-world feedback, and iterate quickly. But without an existing audience, you might struggle to get those initial users and traction.
So, indulge me: Which approach did you take —or are you considering taking (those who haven't launched yet)?
- Did you build an audience before launching your product, or did you launch and then focus on growth?
- What worked (or didn't work) for you?
- If you could go back, would you do it differently?
Share your story with us so we can all learn from each other. There's someone here who could benefit from your experience.
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P.S: If you're a growth-stage founder struggling with churn or stagnant customer acquisition (usually because of poor positioning and messaging), I'd love to help.
I specialize in crafting impactful marketing strategies tailored specifically to your product so you can start seeing the results you deserve.
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I’m all for growing the audience first. You can have many launches, but your audience will usually stay more or less the same.
Clockwise Smart Alarm
It depends on the product and resources available. If you have the time and budget, building product awareness early can make the initial launch and future releases generate a large buzz faster. Building a group of people who like and trust your product idea and brand early will create a loyal fanbase that can advocate for you, saving money and time to work on the product instead of an initial marketing boost. These marketing efforts should be ongoing to keep momentum and will pay dividends if the product evolves or you want to launch a new product. Every product will have users but a brand can have multiple products worth of users. Brand is the ultimate goal
That all being said, you could be the best marketer on the planet and build the biggest audience and still fail without delivering a product.
Doing an even split will allow you to develop both which is the best scenario. Focus on the thing you struggle with most to grow it the fastest. Or outsource the work for either to focus on what you do best!
We launched first, iterated fast, and built an audience along the way. Early adopters became our best advocates. That said, having an audience before launch would’ve made the process smoother. If I could go back? I’d do both in parallel.
Great question! I’ve seen both approaches work, and I think it really depends on the type of product and market.
For my last project, we focused on building an audience first, mostly through content and community engagement. This gave us a group of early adopters who were excited about what we were building, which made the launch much smoother. The downside? It took a lot of time and effort to keep the audience engaged before we even had a product ready.
On the flip side, I’ve also seen teams launch first and figure out audience growth later. The advantage here is immediate feedback—you get real users interacting with your product right away. But without an initial audience, getting those first few customers can be a grind.
If I could go back, I’d aim for a hybrid approach—building just enough audience to validate demand while moving fast on launch to iterate based on real user input.
Curious to hear what worked for others! 🚀
Hey, just looking for one clarification. When the community her is talking about "launch first" are we typically referencing launching on PH, or does this also reference launching outside of PH? (i'm assuming it's the latter)
Reason I ask is most of my confusion having just started on PH is how to build an audience on product hunt for my product (difr.me) already in early access outside of PH. (Since most of my existing beta users aren't on PH, and are unlikely to join.)
Not sure if this changes anyone's answers below, but would love to understand any potential nuances I should be considering for PH launching vs. audience pre-building specifically.
Dan
The choice between audience-first or launch-first depends on your product. If trust and engagement matter (e.g., creator tools, B2C products), building an audience first helps with validation and organic traction. But it takes time. If solving a clear pain point (e.g., B2B SaaS), launching first allows for faster iteration. A hybrid approach works best—build micro-audiences, test demand with early signups, and launch quickly. No audience makes launching harder, but an audience without a product leads nowhere.
chatWise
Very interesting post @nuellaugochi !
I think building an audience is important, if there is noone to use what you build there is no point.
However, I dont think it needs to be a binary decision. i.e one or the other.
You should build your audience, and your product at the same time. The thing is that regarding building your product, you have more control over. aka if you dont build it it wont be built lol..
However, with audience it does not depend on you 100%, it depends on the platforms you use and if you manage to get your content right. Therefore, while testing things out in terms of what your audience likes, you should definitely not ditch the product side of things.
Because platforms like instagram, linkedin, x or whatever, to grow and build an audience requires a lot of energy an attention, and i dont think any entrepreneur should put all their effort to making those platforms richer.
Because you working on building an audience, guarantees that the platforms get richer, it does not guarantee that you will successfully create an engaging community.
That's my take.
Keep hustling!
(very interesting post, nice!)
T
As always - the truth is somewhere in the middle. would probably advice to launch a simple MVP and build an audience around it. Its always a question on how much feedback we need to receive before making this MVP and actual end2end product, but every journey is different!
In my opinion, we should start building an audience as early as possible. If we can articulate the product idea clearly and vividly — which isn’t always the case, even with strong startups — and if we have the resources to create buzz and keep the audience engaged without a product, then it makes sense to do so before launch. However, if resources are limited and the investment in promotion needs to generate returns quickly, there’s nothing wrong with waiting until the product is launched.
This post reminds me of one of my favorite articles, which influenced me to start building great products without worrying too much about growing an audience. Because to be a successful founder, we don’t need millions of customers, just a thousand true fans.
True Fan definition form the article
"A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month."
You can read the article here: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/