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. ----- 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. Connect with me on LinkedIn today. Can't wait to hear from you!

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I'm Gagan Biyani, co-founder and CEO at Maven, a platform for cohort-based courses (CBCs). Backed by a16z and First Round, Maven empowers creators to monetize their expertise by teaching their audience via live and asynchronous video. In just one year, Maven has dozens of creators making over $10k and many who have made over $100k. Previously, I co-founded Udemy, a platform for video-based courses or MOOCs. With over 500 million course enrollments, Udemy was the first major MOOC platform online and is the most extensive video courses library on the Internet. I was also co-founder and CEO of Sprig, a food delivery company that raised $60M and eventually shut down. Currently, I'm working on a 3-day virtual lecture series called The Ideation Bootcamp where you can learn how to reverse engineer $100 million startup ideas. I also write about my experiences as a founder here

If I'm being completely honest, I have built a successful resume maker tool but I'm not passionate at all about resumes. Although it is really rewarding to help people in something as important as their job search, what I am really passionate about is building cool things online and the potential of building a lifestyle business that would allow me to be a time millionaire. But I always wonder how it would feel when both boxes are checked- when you are passionate about the problem you are solving AND passionate about building your own business. Sometimes what you're passionate about is not economically feasible- I would love to develop video games but the market is already saturated. Although having a successful business could leave room for me to use my free time to follow my passion. Then the line can get blurry- am I passionate about the problem my product is trying to solve or passionate about the result of solving that problem? I don't actually care about resumes but I work on it with passion because of the possible outcome ... what is the difference then? I'm sure there are plenty of people on this forum who have had a great money-making idea and went for it. But that's not necessarily in niche that you feel passionate about. What do you think is the extent to which a business can be hindered when the founder(s) have no passion for the problem the business is solving? Do you think it even matters?

What type of badges do you have?