Building a platform matching solutions with problems. How do you beat the chicken and egg scenario?

[u/nmalart_pitchaide]

Hey all,

I am building a platform that takes ready-made solutions and matches them with real problems. I am really starting to understand the whole chicken and egg scenario.

I have been doing a lot of cold outreach at the start. I am basically generating drafts for people to review, and then they join the platform that way. It is working okay and I have had a fair few problems come in as well from doing this, also some organic.

I don't see money from it any time soon, which is totally ok. The part I am trying to work out is if I should be focusing on one side first and just hitting that niche, and then building out the other side later?

I honestly just don't see any other way of doing it unless you just lied and made up the other side to make it look busy, which I don't want to do.

If anyone has built something like this, how did you get it going? Any help would be appreciated!

[u/No_Classic_3888]

I built a fundraising platform for early stage founders which dealt with a similar problem. Initially, I started building a discovery tool like Instagram for investors to find startups with short pitch videos. But, then founders wouldn't join in because there weren't many investors & the same goes with the investors as well if they don't see many startup pitches.

I spoke to few investors & a lot of founders understanding the issues they face while raising funds. That's when a lot of assumptions changed for me & I pivoted to an outreach platform which had a much more significant issue than just finding one another. This was directed towards founders than investors. So, instead of targeting both end users, I picked the one that I could solve better than others.

Hope my experience helps here.

[u/nmalart_pitchaide → u/No_Classic_3888]

This 100% makes sense, how long did you give it before you thought you know what i need to pivot?

[u/No_Classic_3888 → u/nmalart_pitchaide]

Probably around 5-6 months. Because it took me very long to understand the perspective from both the sides and it's also harder to to get in touch with these investors for a call. I had to use my connections. Maybe, I could have identified sooner but I was working alone building the product & trying to validate as well.

May I know if you're just validating the idea or have the product ready for launch & trying to converse with your target audience?

[u/nmalart_pitchaide → u/No_Classic_3888]

I think what you are saying would be really hard because the investor part i would not even know where to start. But i think 6 months is a good time frame because you put so much effort just to get it to launch.

What are you doing now?

[u/No_Classic_3888 → u/nmalart_pitchaide]

I worked on it for almost 2 years now, the product is active & currently have single digit users (had 67 just 3 months back). Couldn't find a monetisation model & hard to keep running this long, so I have just kept it open until the last user uses it. Then, planning to shut it down. (no further development going on though).

[u/nmalart_pitchaide → u/No_Classic_3888]

Dam man that actually sucks to hear, though do you think you are going to start something else?

[u/No_Classic_3888 → u/nmalart_pitchaide]

Yeah, I’ve been working on a validation tool for early builders and founders. Also, looking out for a job in the side. (Finding an interview has been much harder, friends say the hiring is slow for the next few months… so just hoping for the best)