Among all the bars a new product needs to clear — market, buildability, margin — distribution is the one you can't manufacture on a timeline. A warm, concentrated audience takes years to develop and can't be conjured for a specific opportunity.
Every niche has a place where practitioners go to learn. Finding that place is the distribution strategy.
Going narrow is uncomfortable. It feels like you're leaving users out. But the depth you can achieve in a specific domain is exactly what makes a tool worth paying for.
The hardest part of selling tools that work with private data isn't building the product — it's clearing the trust threshold that sits between interest and usage.
Getting listed in the right directory is worth more than most marketing. But directories have a cold start problem too — and knowing which ones matter is half the work.
Most founders build a product and then look for a channel. A few build the channel first. The second group has a structural advantage that compounds.
When someone else educates your market, they're doing expensive work for free. The question is whether you're positioned to capture it.