How are you building trust in your startup before you've made your first sale?

One thing I've been learning while building my startup is that finishing a product and earning the trust of the people you want to serve are two very different things.

Over the past year, I've spent a lot of time building the technology, but I've also realized that getting a foot in the door requires more than having something that works.

I've started focusing on building credibility in other ways:

• Publishing research in an international project management journal.

• Writing a LinkedIn newsletter to share what I'm learning about business and technology.

• Preparing to speak at an international technology conference.

• Working through security, integrations, and the requirements of building software for organizations.

• Participating in industry communities and building relationships with people who understand the problems I'm trying to solve.

And I'm doing much of this before earning my first dollar in revenue.

What I'm learning is that people need reasons to trust both the product and the person or company behind it. Having a working solution doesn't automatically create that confidence.

I'm still figuring out which activities actually help build meaningful relationships and which ones simply create visibility.

For founders who started without an established reputation or customer base, what helped you earn the trust of your first customers?

Was there something you did that changed how potential customers responded to you?