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Comment by is0tope | Hacker News Reader

This is extremely true. I've read many blog posts about how someone started a side project and bootstrapped it to 10k mrr etc.

Invariably when you read closer it goes something like this: "So I had this widely successful blog about X and decided to make a product. I posted about it on my blog and got 1000 sign-ups overnight etc".

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I think this gets overblown in the sense that followers often do no equal customers, especially when it's a subscription. obviously yes, having an audience is helpful, but it can also give you false confidence too. They'll tell you your product is amazing, sign up for an early access waitlist, and then often very few of them actually buy because what brought them there was a desire to emotionally support you, not a need for your product. It does help you get the word out though.

Yes of course I'm not implying it's a panacea. However from my experience getting product market fit is one of the hardest parts of the whole process, and having a ready made audience relevant to your topic is a very nice head start.

Absolutely. my reply was aimed more at the unseen other readers looking to use your comment to confirm their bias that regular people can't do this without a huge audience and dismiss it altogether.

It doesn't have to be your traffic tho. One of my projects initially hugely benefited from a single comment on digital oceans blog with a weird solution to a problem my Project easily solved.

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