That “new idea” feeling is intoxicating, isn’t it?

It feels like pure electricity. You can’t sleep. You’re brainstorming features on napkins, buying the domain name at 2 AM, and you’re already imagining your Stripe notifications lighting up your phone. You’ve got a solution, and you can’t wait to build it and tell the world.

So you put your head down, you build the app, and you get ready to launch.

You’ve got a vague idea of who this is for (“small business owners,” “creators,” “non-technical people”), so you plan to hit up LinkedIn, maybe some Reddit threads, and spread the word.

But before you spend the next six months of your life building in a caffeinated bubble, I want to chuck a disclaimer on this situation.

Your idea IS brilliant.

But a brilliant idea is worthless if it doesn’t solve a real, specific, and painful problem for a specific group of people who are willing to pay to have it solved.

It sucks, I know…

It sucks because you’re focusing on your solution rather than their problem.

People buy freedom. People buy solutions for their problems.

They are unmoved by your feature list, indifferent to your tech stack, and will not click buttons or buy your things just because you built them. (Sorry!)

Let’s get into it.

1. The “Everyone needs this” trap

This is the most seductive lie an idea can whisper to you.

You’re so convinced of its genius that you believe it’s universally applicable. “Any business owner could use this to save time!” or “This will help every creator grow their audience!”

This is the strategic equivalent of shouting into a crowded stadium and hoping the one person who needs to hear you magically tunes in.

When you market to everyone, you resonate with no one.

Your copy becomes a series of vague platitudes.

You can’t speak to a specific pain point because you’re trying to address all of them at once.

(It’s the business version of a Swiss Army knife with 50 tools—it can do a lot of things poorly, but nothing really well.)

Stop trying to be the solution for “everyone.”

Niche down until it feels uncomfortably specific.

Who is the one type of person who is losing sleep over the problem you solve? Coaches who onboard more than 10 clients a month? SaaS founders who have a churn rate higher than 5% in the first 30 days?

Get specific. That’s where the magic is.

2. The “What if I told you…” fallacy

You’re obsessed with what your product does. The dashboard is so slick. The automation sequence is a work of art. You’ve integrated five different APIs. So when you talk about it, you lead with that.

“What if I told you… there’s a new way to automate your customer onboarding?”

Your potential customer is thinking, “Okay? I already have an email sequence that kinda works. Why should I care?”

You’ve fallen in love with the what (your features) and forgotten the why (their transformation).

No one cares that you have a “document-centric onboarding flow.”

They care that their new clients will stop sending them panicked “what do I do next?” emails at 9 PM on a Sunday.

For every feature you build, ask “so what?” five times.

• “Our platform automates onboarding.” -> So what?
• “So clients get all their info instantly.” -> So what?
• “So they don’t have to wait for a manual email.” -> So what?
• “So they feel confident and supported from day one.” -> So what?
• “So they don’t churn before they even start, which saves the business owner from losing money and feeling like a failure.”

Now that’s what you’re selling. Not automation. You’re selling confidence and reduced churn.

You get what I mean?

3. The “I’ll just spread the word” strategy

This isn’t a strategy. It’s a HOPE.

(Yeah, sorry to be that guy…)

Posting on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Reddit is pointless if you haven’t done the work on the first two points.

It’s like putting up a billboard in the middle of the desert. Sure, it’s out there, but is anyone who matters going to see it?

“Spreading the word” assumes that people are just waiting for a solution like yours to appear. They’re not. They’re busy, distracted, and already patching together their own “good enough” solutions with duct tape and Zapier or n8n.

Stop “spreading.”

Target instead.

(It’s not a bad word, I promise.)

Start a conversation. Find 5 people you believe are your ideal customers. Not to sell them anything, but to learn from them.

Send them a message like:

“Hey [Name], I’m exploring an idea to solve [specific problem]. I see you’re a [job title], and I’m guessing you might have dealt with this. Would you be open to a 15-minute chat so I can learn more about your experience? I’m not selling anything. I’m just trying to make sure I’m building something people actually want.”

The feedback from those five conversations will be worth more than 1,000 random impressions on a LinkedIn post. Especially when they turn your idea down.

When your solution ain’t solving, ask for help

If you’re feeling a little attacked after reading this, good. It means you care enough about your idea to feel protective of it.

But the goal isn’t to protect your idea, rather to make it successful.

And success doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

It happens when you stop building what you think people need and start building what they tell you they need.

The key is CONTEXT.

Stop building. Stop planning your marketing campaign. Stop “spreading the word.”

Go talk to a human being.

(And please let me know if this post has inspired you!)

Happy building,

Mattia

…

Blog post inspired by this Threads conversation between my internet friend Amine and me:

View on Threads