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Episode #66

Sell First, Build Second

Your product isn't selling because you built it before validating demand. Sell first with a landing page, then build what people actually pay for.

9 min 11s
Listen on:SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube

Key takeaways

  • Sell before you build: validate demand with a landing page before investing time, money or code into a new product or service.
  • Use a waiting list for lower-risk validation or a live buy button for the clearest proof of demand, payment means people actually want it.
  • Falling in love with your own product makes you ignore the market's most honest feedback: silence and no sales.
  • Testing 10 ideas with landing pages over ten weeks gives you real data faster than building one product over ten months.
  • Talk to your customers during validation. Paul estimates you will find a working idea by your third to fifth concept, not your tenth.

Timestamps

00:00Why your product isn't selling
00:28Falling in love with your product kills sales
01:21The sell-first method: soft and hard approaches
01:50Waiting list vs. buy button explained
02:56How Paul validated Identity First Media
06:21Telecom company case: two years wasted on a product nobody wanted
08:36Iterate fast: test 10 ideas in ten weeks
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Read the blog article

Why Isn't Your Product Selling? Sell It Before You Build It

Show notes

Why your product is not selling

In this episode, Paul Veth explains why most entrepreneurs struggle to sell: they build before they validate. Falling in love with your own product or service causes you to ignore the clearest feedback signal available, which is the absence of buyers.

The two methods to sell before you build

The soft method: waiting list

  • Create a landing page with a waiting list
  • Set a threshold number, for example 50, 100 or 1,000 sign-ups
  • Only start building once you hit that number

The hard method: live buy button

  • Create a landing page with a real payment option
  • Let people pay in full or as an advance payment
  • Payment is the clearest proof of demand, and it generates cash flow to build

How Paul Veth validated Identity First Media

Paul applied the sell-first method when building Identity First Media, a B2B platform that creates AI-optimized online presence for experts. He built a design mockup in five to ten minutes per prospect, sent it to 20 to 50 people, and asked if they wanted it. Two entrepreneurs said yes and asked for an invoice before the product existed. That was the proof of concept. He then scaled outreach to another 50 people and saw consistent engagement before writing a single line of code.

The telecom cautionary story

Paul worked inside a major international telecom company that spent two years building a new subscription model. The launch included a national television campaign, in-store activations across all Dutch retail locations, and international rollout across multiple countries. Three months after launch, the subscription model was shut down. Nobody wanted it. The entire investment, in time, budget and team capacity, could have been avoided by testing demand with a small group of customers before building anything.

Key principle

If you test 10 product ideas with landing pages over ten weeks, you have data fast, cash flow if people pay, and the ability to iterate without burning your runway. Build all 10 first and you might quit before idea number ten ever gets a fair shot.

Topics

sell first build secondproduct validationlanding page validationentrepreneur product launchproof of conceptwaiting list strategyIdentity First Mediastartup validation methodhow to validate a business ideaPaul Veth podcast

Full transcript

View full transcript
0:00
0This is why your product or service isn't selling and I know when I tell you the reason, you will hate it. But, when you adapt to it, you will start selling much faster and much easier as well. So, here's the thing. Most entrepreneurs create a service or product. You already did that or you are building a new one or you have built several products or service services.
0:28
0But when you do that, you start to suffer for it because you put in effort and time. And then what will happen is you fall in love with the product or service. And when you fall in love, you you neglect all the feedback you get and and the feedback is the best feedback is when you are start selling it and nobody buys it. That's the best feedback. But you ignore this because you fell in love with your product or service and that's the part you hate.
1:01
0You have to turn it around and I know a lot of entrepreneurs heard this before but they don't adapt it yet. So you probably didn't adapt this method yet, but it's very easy and it's going to help you. And I have two ways to do it. One is more soft, one is more hard. The hard one is the best one.
1:21
0If you want to do the soft one, that's possible as well. And what's the method? It's very easy. Sell first. First you have to sell it and then you have to create it or build it.
1:34
0It's like that. It's really an old method. It's working for decades already, maybe even longer, but we don't have the data. But, you have two ways. The soft way is create a landing page with a waiting list.
1:50
0And when you see people coming into the waiting list for your new product or service, you have to say okay, at 50, at 100, at 1,000. You have to put a put in a number and then it will be successful. So, that's the soft way. The hard way is create a landing page, a button, buy this, let them pay for the whole product or service or maybe some advanced payment. That's both okay, but if people pay, they really want a product or service.
2:26
0So if you are doing this and you create a landing page, the soft one to the waiting list or the hard one to the buy button, then you will find out, okay, people really want this. That's it. Sell first and then start creating it. I did the same thing with Identity First Media and before Identity First Media, I didn't adapt myself. I I was like like a lot of entrepreneurs falling in love with my services and products.
2:56
0But with Identity First Media, I turned it around. I created the service and when I created it in my mind, I I thought about it in my mind and I was like, okay, how can I show people what it will look like? And then I found a really fast way to to show it to other entrepreneurs because because it's a business to business product. And we built websites for experts to to be clear. AI visibility is all adapted as well.
3:31
0It's it's great. I will tell you another time about that product. But I created the product in my head and then I found a way to give an example to entrepreneurs in five or ten minutes. So, for me, it it would took take me five to ten minutes to make a design website, how it's going to look like, and I send it to 20 to 50 people. Hey, here's what this is what I'm building.
4:00
0This is what I can do for you. Are you interested? And at that moment, I got two entrepreneurs. They said, okay, send me the the bill. And from that moment, I started to build it.
4:14
0And at that moment I knew, okay, that this is proof of concept. A lot of people wanted it because after the 20 to 50 people, I send it to another 50 people and they start to be interested and engaging with me. So I knew, okay, a lot of people want this. And I want you to do the same thing. Don't over complicate it.
4:37
0Just create a landing page. Think of a way to make it visual for entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs and customers as well, they want to see something because when you see some something, you can feel it more. You can have the experience more of how it's going to be your solution. How is it going to look and use AI for this. So you ask AI, okay, I want to make a visual of my new product or service so people can can understand what it's meaning for them if they got my solution.
5:17
0So that's it and you create it and you show it to people on the waiting list, landing page with waiting list or landing page with buy button. And if you do it like that, you immediately immediately will find out that maybe the first, second or third ID you have, maybe even the first 10 IDs you have are not working because nobody's buying it. But could you imagine what will happen if you build it first, all these 10 IDs, and after the tenth you are like, okay, I I I'm quitting as an as an entrepreneur. Whilst when you build the landing pages and you do it like that, you can test 10 IDs in the next ten weeks. That's possible.
6:03
0So you have data much faster. You can sell much faster. If you let people buy and they pay, you have cash flow to create your product or service. So that's very easy. And if your product or service is good enough, people want to pay for it.
6:21
0It's just like that. It's just how the market works. It makes me think of a moment I was working at a really big phone company and they invested two years with the whole team to create a new subscription model. So, it was created two years. We we had like this celebration party at the company because we are going to launch it.
6:46
0There was a big launch campaign on national television, all kind of parties, all shops in The Netherlands were launching it with all banners and stuff. A lot of effort, a lot of time was invested, a lot of money and after three months we have to shut down subscription model. Nobody wanted it. It it it doesn't work that way. They had to sell it first.
7:13
0They have to ask this customer, okay, do you want this subscription model? What do you think about it? Is it okay if you pay this? Can we try it with you for a discount? And then at that moment, they would find out, okay, people don't want it or the people who wanted it and were trying it, they are not happy or satisfied.
7:37
0So we don't launch this new subscription model. Think about the effort and time and money it costed for a big phone company that operates not only in The Netherlands, but it was an international campaign. So internationally, all the countries who were launching from the beginning, all the money, all the time. It's crazy. But you do the same thing as an entrepreneur when you have the idea of a new product or service and you are going to create it and make making people warm for it and then suddenly you launch it and nobody wants it.
8:15
0It's the same thing. So please try this, sell first and then create it. That's it. If you adapt this, you will find out that it's working much faster and much easier. And no, it's still not working that the first next idea you have is going to work.
8:36
0But if you do it like this, you can iterate and adapt very fast. So you can, like I said, test 10 IDs in ten weeks. And I know for sure if you talk to your customers, then you will you you won't need 10 IDs. You you will score in your third to fifth ID at max. I promise you.
9:02
0So go try it. Create very fast, very easy landing pages, waiting list or buy button. That's it. Go.

Frequently asked questions

What does 'sell first, build second' actually mean in practice?

It means you validate demand before building your product or service. You create a landing page with either a waiting list or a live payment option. If people sign up or pay, you have proof of demand. Only then do you start building. This avoids wasting time and money on something nobody wants.

What is the difference between the soft and hard validation methods Paul describes?

The soft method uses a waiting list: people sign up and you set a threshold before you start building. The hard method uses a real buy button where people pay in full or as an advance. Payment is stronger proof of demand than a sign-up, and it gives you cash flow to fund the build.

How did Paul Veth use this method to validate Identity First Media?

Paul created a quick design mockup of the product in five to ten minutes per prospect and sent it to 20 to 50 people asking if they were interested. Two entrepreneurs immediately asked for an invoice. He had not written a line of code yet. That payment was his proof of concept before building anything.

Why do most entrepreneurs skip validation and build first?

Paul says entrepreneurs fall in love with their own idea. That emotional attachment causes them to ignore the market's clearest signal, which is that nobody is buying. Validation feels like doubt, but it is actually the fastest path to a product that sells.

How many ideas do you need to test before one works?

Paul estimates that if you talk to real customers during validation, you will find a working concept by your third to fifth idea. Testing with landing pages means you can run through ten ideas in ten weeks instead of spending months building something before discovering it does not sell.

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Discussion

The 'sell first, build second' approach challenges everything most builders are taught: finish the product, then find customers. Have you ever tested demand before building, and what did you learn from it that you couldn't have learned any other way?

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