I thought building was the hard part… I was wrong
One thing I’m starting to realize
Building the product is only half the work
The other half is getting people to actually see it
You can spend days improving features, fixing edge cases, making things better
But if no one knows it exists, it doesn’t really matter
I used to think “build something good and people will come”
Now it feels more like “build and learn how to reach people at the same time”
Curious how others balance this
Do you focus more on building first or distribution early on?
Distribution-first became my whole thesis after building WeddingDJFinder. I spent months just on the product - scraped 9,400+ DJs, built city pages for every US market, set up search. Then realized nobody could find it.
Flipped the script: SEO became the product. Every city page, every state page, every genre guide is a distribution asset. Slow to compound (6-8 weeks before you see movement), but once it does, it's durable.
The trap is thinking distribution is separate from building. For most web products, the distribution strategy should inform what you build. I would have structured the entire DB schema differently if I'd thought about SEO from day one.
that’s a great insight
SEO became the product, really stands out feels like something a lot of builders realize too late
the part about structuring things differently from day one hits as well
I’m starting to see how distribution isn’t something you add later, it actually shapes what you build from the start