Finding Your Product and First Users: The Two Problems That Are Really One

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Starting a business is like cooking without a recipe. You know you need ingredients and eaters, but what dish should you make? And who will try your first, experimental batch?

Here's the secret most founders miss: you don't solve these problems separately. The magic happens when you tackle them together. When you're staring at a blank canvas with just an idea, the temptation is strong to lock yourself away for months building the "perfect" product.

This is almost always a mistake. The founders who win don't hide in their garage tinkering with a product nobody wants. They get out into the world, find potential users, and let those interactions shape what they build.

Think about it: How can you possibly know what people want if you haven't talked to them? How can you understand their problems if you haven't watched them struggle? I've seen brilliant teams waste years building products nobody needed because they fell in love with their solution before understanding the problem.

The alternative approach is messy but effective: Build something small and incomplete. Put it in front of real humans. Watch them use it. Listen to their complaints.

See where they get stuck. Each interaction becomes a clue. Each confused user becomes your product teacher. Each person who says "I wish it could do X" becomes your product roadmap.

And here's the counterintuitive truth: people are more forgiving of an imperfect product than you might think. They can see past rough edges if you're solving a real pain point in their lives.

The best startups don't wait for perfection. They launch something that barely works, find the few people who need it desperately, and improve rapidly based on their feedback.

This approach feels uncomfortable. It feels like showing up to a party half-dressed. But it's the fastest path to building something people actually want. Your first users aren't just customers—they're co-creators. They're partners in helping you discover what your product should become.

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So if you're stuck wondering what to build or how to get users, stop treating these as separate problems. The answer to what you should build is hiding in the process of finding your first users.

And the way to find your first users is to build something that addresses their specific pain points.

The product and the users evolve together, each shaping the other.