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Ben Katz

What's more valuable in the very early days: building an audience or building an MVP?

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I've heard varying opinions on this and have my own thoughts but I'd love to hear multiple sides of the argument from the community! While you're here, you can find me on twitter here: https://twitter.com/benlkatz

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Rachel Seo
If I had to choose one to focus on FIRST: building an audience. It's difficult to test your MVP and gather proper insights without an audience.
Danylo Pashuk
Personally I think that MVP is more important, but before building it you have to find a problem your future audience have.
Ben Katz
@danya_pashuk Great insight, Danylo. It's an interesting problem. MVP is more important for making progress on your business but audience gives you distribution which is a cheat code to growth
Richard Gao
You can do both at the same time
Ben Katz
@richard_gao2 That is definitely the goal, but I'm still curious about your opinion if you had to pick just one
Richard Gao
@benjamin_katz2 Building an MVP Can't have an audience without a product
Ben Katz
@richard_gao2 is that true?
🔨 Travis Page 🔨
@richard_gao2 Whenever someone makes a claim like this, I always check. Looks like you ARE doing both at the same time. Look at that traffic spike (mostly from organic and referral)! Good work 🦾. Proof >> https://capture.dropbox.com/mSML...
Richard Gao
@travis_page Yep. Been promoting this before I launched. But if you HAVE to choose one, then building is better. Also, what app did you use to get those stats for my website? Would love to check it out
Rian Robertson
Chicken and egg...but if I had to pick one, I'd say MVP. However, building an "idea audience" of people who will be excited to try out your product should probably be happening at the same time to determine product market fit asap 🤷‍♂️
Ben Katz
@rianbrob Totally agree with you per usual, Rian. Distribution is a huge advantage and helps in velocity of improving your MVP
joukhar
both
Ben Katz
@builtbybuilder what if you had to pick just one?
joukhar
@benjamin_katz2 imagine you have a product but you don't have an audience then the audience is more important
Ben Katz
@builtbybuilder distribution wins
Luis Gustavo
Uff, difficult question. There are so many example in both cases... I think depends on the profile of the founder. If it's related with marketing, he/she could take advantage of the Audience, nevertheless, a product founder will take more advantage of the MVP. Good question by the way 🙂
Ben Katz
@luisgustavo appreciate the feedback and the twitter follow, Luis!
Luis Gustavo
@benjamin_katz2 for sure!
Melinda Kramer
Vote for MVP.
🔨 Travis Page 🔨
The more reliable strategy: audience. If you've got insight on a rare problem that HAS to be solved: MVP
Ben Katz
@travis_page appreciate the insight here, Travis! Agree with you. Having solid distribution is a huge advantage.
🔨 Travis Page 🔨
@benjamin_katz2 Been thinking about this more. I guess it really depends how you define what a "Product" is. You can use a newsletter to build a killer audience. You can use a Discord to build a killer audience. You can use these community tools to provide value to a group of people with the intention of figuring out what common painpoints they have and eventually BUILD a product....... But at that specific point in time, is the value from the newsletter/discord/facebook group the product?
Ryan T - Dezbor.com
Launching soon!
Definitely focus on building an audience. Start by reaching out to close friends who might benefit from your idea. To give a professional touch, you can create a landing page with a sign-up form for early access and include a section for potential customers to ask questions.
Ben Katz
@distartin im a big fan of the early access strategy
Moon
Well, it's a tough one! 🤔 Building an audience can bring much needed validation and feedback for your product, but an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) can help you test and refine your ideas to make sure they're on the right track. 🧐 Personally, I think it's a balance of both! 🔥 Start building your audience and gather valuable insights, but don't forget to work on that MVP so you can bring your product to life. It's all about finding that sweet spot where you can build and validate at the same time!
Ben Katz
@moon10 Good advice, thanks Moon!
Nadim
Sometime for new ideas having an MVP first would be beneficial to showcase what you have in mind.
Ben Katz
@nadimb Thanks Nadim!
Marcus Finley
Your MVP or solution will definitely change so having an audience that is interested in the problem you are solving is more important.
Ben Katz
@marcus_finley Great feedback, thanks Marcus!
Cedric
Gaurav Parvadiya
For me, MVP.
Ben Katz
@graham_patel Thanks, Gaurav! Good luck on the upcoming launch!
Anastasia C
vote for building an MVP since I follow the PLG
Ben Katz
@anastasia_chow thanks for the feedback, Anastasia! Good luck on your upcoming launch :)
Swapnil D Puranik
I'd build the MVP - my audience needs to see what I am building for them to see the value. Also, I want to attract a niche audience who will have the higher probability of converting as early paying customers.
Ben Katz
@swapdp_01 There are benefits to both. I think the best option is to try and chip away at both at the same time whenever possible
Swapnil D Puranik
@benjamin_katz2 yep, if the time and energy permits then definitely do both in parallel.
Saul Fleischman
Build the MPV. People are growing weary of the startup that makes big promises, expects us to give our emails for "early access" - but with little reason to believe that they can pull off any of what they promise. Prove what you can deliver first.
Ben Katz
@osakasaul Agree that it's important to deliver. I do think the early access strategy is a great one for getting product validation
Kamil Kollman
Honestly, I don't think you can choose just one. We are building our product and balanced too much onto development/product part, without focusing on the audience enough, and now we have to "catch up" on that to move on. If you focus on bulding your MVP only, you may end up at dead end where the cost of further development is simply too high, because you didn't verify your choices enough. If you build an audience without the product, you may find it difficult to keep them interested before your product is ready. So I'd say - build stuff and keep everyone notified about that ;)
Ben Katz
@kamil_kollman Good advice, Kamil! It's important to build but it's equally important to have distribution once you're done building
Ricky Goon
For me MVP, if your product can potentially solve an existing problem then the audience would naturally come. It's not like you don't have to build an audience, you still have to but if I can only pick one then MVP
Ben Katz
@goon_ricky good advice, thanks Ricky!
Kaya Lordoğlu
I think it is important to do both simultaneously. However, I'd spent the majority of my effort on building the MVP so that the functionalities and features are ready for the users when going live. The audience can grow through personal networks at first. Only when the product is live, I'd get involved with heavy marketing efforts (e.g. SEO)
Ben Katz
@kaya_lordoglu Good advice, thanks Kaya!
Abinash Mohanty
Both are required actually! If you have an MVP then you need a target audience in order to test the MVP. We can't test the MVP with the internal team, right?
Ben Katz