Coworking spaces can be great if you find the right vibe. The energy of being around other builders or creatives really helps with momentum - though it’s easy to end up socializing more than working if you’re not careful. Balance is key.
That’s a really good point - investor scouts are often overlooked, but they’re usually the ones doing the early pipeline building and deal sourcing. Meeting them casually (coffee, events, even quick chats at coworking spaces) can open doors that formal intros can’t.
I mean - it all depends how big you want to build (what if you do a single feature very good) + you tailor your operation for a niche group of customers based on your first wave of initial POCs/pilots. You can run a great solo business with 10-20 customers.
Walk down the street and knock on local businesses doors. Ask for tech problems. Each one has a few. Ask if they would pay for it. Define for yourself if that income would justify your time/ambition/purpose. AI is hyper-hype but none of BigTech knows how to sell it and purely focus on large enterprises w a mix of fomo/experimentation.
> and no one knows where they will find applications with an ROI
This. Whoever doesn’t respond to OP’s outreach - the problem defined is not big enough or not known yet.
Ads/SEO in B2B are after PMF unless your core audience are devs and its needs bottom-up adoption/awareness - or if its O/S (i.e. Elastic).
> How to gain traction without talking to enough users
You either code or talk to customers (interview/define problem/pitch/close) in early stage. If you do outbound mails 70% of your message should be about them/their problem. Go to meetups, go to industry events etc.
Setup an advisory board w/o giving away equity. Folks w industry expertise and the network.
like any other startup. time, energy and passion. define problem/pain. talk loads w potential customers. ask them if they would pay for it. excel in customer success. find ways to scale and be found :)
Or... or... s/he could convince a VC that the startup would multiply the potential opportunity in the space the tools cover by 10x and get a really fat check for generating the right hype with the right crowd.
