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How To Land 140k Users Selling a Product That Doesn't Exist
Ingeniosity Issue #5
Bill McIntosh
October 17, 2023
Hey Ingeniuses,
This Q4, let’s end the year by going big.
And what better way to go big with another dose of Ingeniosity?
Today, you’ll learn how a B2B software company grew to over 140k users - and it all started by selling a product that doesn’t exist…
Let’s dive in.
There are people going on to launch and scale 7, 8 & even 9 figure businesses that start with nothing but a claim.
The formula for these tools is sell first, build later - or to "presell".
I'll give you an example.
There's a tool called Buffer that lets you schedule social media posts.
But, before it was launched, the founder wanted to make sure this was a tool with a lot of demand before investing resources into producing this tool (smart - too many people invest in projects before even testing their market).
So, he rolled out the first version of Buffer: a simple landing page that just DESCRIBED what the product-to-be did.
He did this to gauge interest in the idea before rolling it out. And the results indicated that people were VERY interested. This is what it looked like:
He released a series of other landing pages to further validate the idea and to see what users were willing to pay for such a tool.
He SOLD the product before there was even a product there!
This early stage of Buffer was what we refer to as an "MVP" or "minimum viable product".
"that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort."
According to Ries's lean startup model of product development, it's important to start gathering customer feedback as fast as you can because the growth on your product is dependent on how you respond to your customers - how can you do this without any customers?
Over time Buffer eventually became a major social media tool with over 140k users. It started as a landing page with no real product yet.
The presell is a standard launch model that even 10-figure companies have used - as long as you fulfill on your promises and actually develop the product that you are selling to people.
This strategy isn't unique to Buffer; other tools use it too.
Dropbox, when it launched, did not actually have the technology it uses built yet.
It came to be worth over 9 billion dollars.
You can apply this same strategy by selling a product - whether it's a course, a book, a physical product you go and develop - whatever kind of product - and THEN once you sell that first round, use the money, excitement, and social backing to go and get it built.
When preselling, it's important to stay mindful of business ethics.
Don't lie.
Don't claim the product exists when it really doesn't. Sell what you are going to build and then just build it.
Think of it like a custom, made to order piece of jewelry.
You go to a jeweler and they'll charge you a lot of money for something that only exists in your imagination at that time.
Then, over the next few days, they turn that imaginary ring into a real one.
This is a way to fund your business in the beginning if you need capital to grow.
Don't have the resources to build your next product?
Launch it first and use the proceeds to then build it out!
That's the entire mechanism behind a Kickstarter campaign, and there are people raising millions of dollars that way.
And because you made it this far, I want to share some of my favorite Internet finds of the past week: