I kept hearing the same advice: “Build fast. Launch fast.”

But one thing bothered me — launch where? and to whom?

Instead of building a product, I started a simple experiment.

On 24 Nov, I created a small WhatsApp community for Indian founders and builders.

No website. No app. No funding. Just one rule: launch ideas, discuss honestly, no promotion spam.

Here’s what happened in ~25 days:

• ~330 members joined organically
• 7 early-stage startups launched (mostly MVPs)
• Each launch got real feedback, polls, and reactions
• Ran 7 weekly startup quizzes → avg 20 people participated each time
• Shared a few startup news items with one question attached → people actually discussed
• Total messages crossed **1000 **, mostly about ideas, reviews, and “what should I do next?”

The most interesting insight for me 👇

Questions > Announcements

Whenever I just shared news → low engagement

Whenever I asked one clear question → people responded

It made me realize something simple but uncomfortable:

Founders don’t lack ideas.

They lack early, honest signals.

No upvotes. No vanity metrics.

Just a small group reacting, voting, disagreeing, asking “why?”

I’m still not sure where this goes.

But this experiment convinced me that feedback itself is a product.

Curious:

• Have you ever launched something without an audience?
• Or built an audience before creating the product?

Would love to learn from others who’ve tried similar experiments.