I’m naturally introverted, socialising is usually a big effort for me. Spending time alone or with my wife is how I recharge. I love building things but I find it difficult to talk about the thing I’ve build and communicate it’s benefits.

Recently I build a MVP and have been trying to recruit some early testers. I’ve struggled, the experience has taught me the importance of having an audience. Building the product was easy (for a programmer) and fun. I knew what I needed to do, it was just a case of working through it. Now that I’m trying to recruit users, I feel like a fish out of water. The only thing I’ve done so far is ask some friends if they will review the app for me.

Whilst doing research online I came across an interview with Ryan Holiday. I can’t remember the exact quote but he said something like:

Building the product is the first marathon. Straight after that you need to run a second marathon which is marketing/selling the product

This quote perfectly sums up where I am right now. I’ve just finished a marathon but I must now run a second marathon that I’m completely unprepared for.

Right now, my plan is as follows:

• Keep pestering my techie friends to review/test the product
• Try to start building an audience via this blog. I’ll be using twitter, medium, reddit, hacker news and newsletters to circulate my content