The Problem I Kept Running Into
Like most founders, I had ideas. Lots of them. Notebooks full of "wouldn't it be cool if..." and "I wish there was a tool that..." The hard part wasn't having ideas — it was knowing which ones were worth building.
So I did what everyone told me to do: I asked people. Friends said "yeah I'd use that." Family said "sounds great." Other founders nodded politely. I ran surveys. I posted on Reddit. I built landing pages and collected emails.
Then I'd spend months building. And launch to... crickets.
The pattern was clear: People will tell you what you want to hear. Surveys capture intent, not urgency. Email signups don't equal customers. I was optimizing for validation theater, not actual demand.
The Breakthrough
After my second failed product, I started doing something different. Instead of asking people what they wanted, I started reading what they were already saying.
Reddit threads where founders vented about broken tools. Hacker News comments where developers admitted they'd pay for a solution. Indie Hackers posts where people described their exact pain points and the workarounds they were using.
These conversations were gold. Not polite, biased feedback — raw, authentic frustration from people who had nothing to gain by being nice.
Why I Built BuildForWho
Manually reading thousands of Reddit threads and HN comments worked — but it was slow. It took me 2 weeks of research to validate a single idea properly. And even then, I wasn't confident I'd found all the signal.
So I built a tool to do it for me. Something that could scan millions of conversations in seconds, understand context and urgency, and surface the exact insights I needed to make a go/no-go decision.
BuildForWho started as an internal tool. Then I validated it (using itself, ironically) and realized other founders had the exact same problem. So I cleaned it up, added a pricing page, and shipped it.
What makes it different
- Real conversations, not surveys — We analyze what people say when nobody's asking. That's where the truth lives.
- Urgency, not just volume — 10,000 casual mentions don't matter. 100 desperate people looking for a solution right now? That's a business.
- Customers, not just insights — You don't just learn demand exists. You get a list of people actively looking for what you're building.
- Speed — What used to take me 2 weeks now takes 2 minutes. Test 10 ideas before lunch.
- One-time pricing — No SaaS subscription trap. Pay once, validate your next batch of ideas.
What I'm Building Next
BuildForWho is just the first step. The bigger vision is a complete founder toolkit for validation — from initial idea scan to customer interviews to demand tracking over time.
I'm also working on NexNotes AI, an AI-powered note-taking and knowledge management tool for founders who need to synthesize research fast.
If you want to follow along, connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. I share lessons on validation, demand intelligence, and building in public.
The mission: Help 10,000 founders avoid building products nobody wants. Give them the data they need to make confident bets. Save them months of wasted effort and thousands in sunk costs.
Let's Build Together
If you're building something, I'd love to hear about it. Reach out on Twitter, LinkedIn, or email me at hello@buildforwho.com.
I'm always happy to chat about validation strategy, share what's working (and what's not), or just talk shop with fellow builders.
Ready to validate your idea?
Stop guessing. Start building products with proven demand. Get your first validation report in under 2 minutes.
Start Validating Free