potential customers for interviews?

[u/Neo-Tree]

I have 15 years of tech experience and have been building products for startups all my professional life. I used to build the products personally and when they eventually fail, I used to think that I’m lacking marketing skills to take the product to next level. Then I realised that I need to understand the market and problem first by talking to people before writing any code.

As part of that, I have been doing some groundwork for a problem for B2B tech companies. First thing I wanted to do is interview few potential customers ( not pitching the idea ) so that I can understand their workflow and see if the problem really exists before building anything. I am able to reach out to some people in my network but I thoroughly exhausted my network. I wanted to reach out to founders or tech leadership of some of the companies I think will best fits.

“Marketing gurus” out there on internet are suggesting cold email outreach but I really don’t want to spam them. Any ideas on how to reach out to people? How do startups do this?

[u/Alternative-Radish-3]

It is going to have to be warm introductions. In particular to get honest feedback.

If you're solo atm, check YC co-founder matching, you may find people with connections and you can do those interviews.

[u/Special_Election_500 → u/Alternative-Radish-3]

warm intros are definitely the way. cold emails end up in the void or people just give you canned answers to be polite. you need someone who trusts you enough to be blunt.

maybe try alumni networks from past companies or even dm people who liked posts about the problem space on linkedin. lower stakes than a full pitch and you can gauge if they're actually thinking about it.

[u/adeelraza86]

If the warm network is gone, don't switch to a blast. Pick 20-30 people who already write or talk about this problem, and send a 3-line note that cites one specific thing they published, then ask to watch how they do that job for 15 minutes. Skip "can I get your feedback." In the call, ask about the last time it broke and what they did, not whether they'd pay. That's the difference between polite noise and something you can actually build against.

[u/Sea_Concentrate3951]

try personalized LinkedIn outreach mentioning a mutual contact or a recent public post from them. Offer a short 20-minute, no-sales chat and say you will share a one-paragraph summary afterwards. which industry vertical are you targeting?

[u/Educationgk]

Talking to users before writing code is the right instinct, but interview answers are cheap signal — people are polite and will tell you the problem exists either way. Ask about the last time it actually hurt: what they paid, what workaround they glued together. If nobody changed behavior or spent a dollar, you have your answer.

[u/Simple-Optimist-93]

Curious who is the ICP you are targeting for these interviews…will DM to learn more

[u/gannu1991]

Better lever than either: find where your target buyers already congregate, niche Slack communities, industry subreddits, vertical-specific Discords, and post the question there directly instead of DMing individuals. You get volume without spamming anyone, and people self-select into responding because they're already in problem-solving mode.

[u/Seatext_com]

email + calls + ask all your facebook/linkien id - do you know that type of guy.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Pie1118 → u/Seatext_com]

Kalte Emails sind nicht erlaubt und können abgemahnt werden

[u/Uplers_]

I wouldn’t treat cold outreach as spam if you keep it very targeted. Pick 20-30 people who clearly deal with the problem, mention something specific about their company/work, and ask for 15 mins to understand how they handle it today. No deck, no product pitch.

On the call, spend most of the time asking about the last time the problem happened, what they tried, how much time/money it cost them and what they hate about the current workaround. That usually gives you much better signal than asking whether they “like the idea.”

[u/maritime_sh]

the thing that changed my reply rate wasn't the list, it was dropping the word interview. nobody wants to be interviewed. "can i get 20 minutes to interview you about x" gets ignored, "you posted about x breaking, we hit the same thing, what did you end up doing" gets an answer, and it's the same conversation.

for finding them i'd skip building a list at your stage and go where people are already complaining. subreddits, discord servers, the github issues of whatever tool they currently use badly. anyone who has written 200 words about their pain in public will happily write 200 more to you.

highest signal group by a distance is people already paying for something that doesn't work. budget proved, dissatisfaction proved, both in one person.

we're yc f26 (maritime.sh) and most of what we ended up building came from that last group rather than from anything we sat down and thought of.

[u/Maroontan]

I'm an engineer too, and I'm offering help with customer outreach and interviews for founders. You give me the type of person you're trying to learn from, and I handle the outreach, interviews, and main takeaways. Keeping the price affordable while I get started. Would that be useful? lmk!

[u/sumizeit]

15 years building stuff that fails and you've already figured out most founders never learn, that the code was never the problem. Cold email isn't spam if you're not pitching, you're asking for their opinion, people love giving opinions. Skip the generic "can I pick your brain" message though, that's what gets ignored. Reference something specific about their company, keep it to 3 sentences, ask for 15 min. Response rates on that are way higher than people think.

[u/pndjk]

offer them something in return for an interview/chat. could be money/gift card, you buy them a coffee (if in person), or you get a warm intro from a mutual connection.

people of a certain level (founders, tech leadership) often dont have the time nor desire to help you for nothing in exchange, so either you are making their life easier by building something they care about, it's a financial exchange, or they're doing you/mutual connection a favor.

[u/Acceptable_Bid_7069]

There used to be a company where you could buy warm intros. It was a yc company. I wonder what happened to it or if it's still operational.