If you have a product idea, stop sitting around and start executing

I bet you can get the ball rolling this very weekend and start validating (or invalidating) your idea, begin capturing interested customers, and even start testing willingness to pay.

At the onset of building Brainfood, we moved very quickly. Once the value proposition was hammered out, we doubled down on learning at lightspeed. Follow along for my process and tips on how you can do the same.

Your landing page is everything

It’s the face of your company. A digital billboard for your product. A place to capture interested customers. A marketplace where you can charge users on day one. The swiss army knife for validating, or invalidating, your product idea.

We’re going to focus on all the essential components of a powerful landing page and how you can launch one this weekend.

My favorite landing page builders

Brainfood’s landing page was built in Webflow. It’s one of the most powerful no-code tools that currently exists, but also comes with a bit of a learning curve. I’m confident you can learn it in one weekend, but if you want a lower effort, drag and drop experience, consider the following alternatives.

Carrd is a landing page builder that’ll get your concept live in a matter of minutes. You’ll have significantly less flexibility but it’s a simple tool and great for quick execution.

If you want a happy medium with more customization, check out Squarespace andWix. Both are powerful enough to integrate with the following components, which you’ll definitely be needing.

The critical components, in hierarchy of importance

1. Value proposition

What is the problem and what are you offering as a solution? Don’t be abstract or clever. Keep it clear, keep it simple. It’s also too early to obsess over A/B testing so don’t worry about perfection but do your best.

2. Call to action

This must be omnipresent, easily clickable the moment a user lands, and still visible if they choose to scroll. Keep your call to action clear, whether you want them to “Sign up now”, “Download now”, “Join the waitlist”, “Buy now”, or in our case, “Start learning”.

3. Questionnaire

I would highly encourage you to have your call to action (CTA) open up a questionnaire. Your primary goal is rapid learning. The Brainfood CTA opened up a Typeform, where we could immediately learn about our target audience. Who were these people and why did they want Brainfood?

Funneling interested customers through all of these questions weeds out the less interested and helps you capture super users who desperately want what you’re building.

4. Email capture

Whatever you do, capture their email. Email is a valuable possession most folks don’t give away haphazardly. Capturing emails then, means you’re on to something. This is also how you’ll amass a community, and keep these folks updated when you ship. Use Mailchimpto build this list.

5. Willingness to pay

If you choose to capture anything beyond email, see if you can get people to pay you for what you’re building, in advance. We charged users a nominal $5 for their first month of access. The fact that people actually put in the effort to get their credit cards out is a powerful signal for what you’re building.

One thing to note. You’re not trying to profit at this point or use that money to build the product (unless it’s a Kickstarter campaign). So don’t focus on anything beyond the number of conversions here, and you can always refund that money if the product never gets built. Don’t spend it!

The people who pay, are the people you really want to talk to. You’ll discover who your true early adopters are, their motivations, personas, and their true pain points.

You can use Stripe, or Gumroad to gather payments.

Launch and distribute

You’ve got to get people to your website somehow. A strong launch starts months in advance.

Amassing a following is arguably the most valuable tool for distribution. If you know you’ll be building something soon, start building a following now.

I accredit the bulk of our early adopters to the following. Dense Discovery, my favorite newsletter, featured Brainfood as a learning app with exciting potential. This accounted for nearly 70% of our signups. I posted to HackerNewswhich also gained traction and resulted in someone hunting us onProductHunt. These folks made up 20% of our signups.

For future endeavors, my strategy is to continue nurturing a following on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram, then share snippets of the journey in the months prior to launch. Having an audience is like steroids for your startup.

If there’s an idea you’ve been sitting on, I hope you get started this weekend!

Feel free to reach out with questions as you navigate your own journey. Find me on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, orwww.hemurahman.com.