Three weeks later. Here's what changed.
Ran soto through 5 real people with real ideas. Got real feedback.
The verdict engine works: one user got flagged on something she hadn't explicitly mentioned. Soto caught it from context. But the questions were unclear, the user's specific skills weren't showing up in the output, and the funnel was backwards; paywall before the result instead of after. Three out of five got a 15% score, which told me the inputs were broken, not just the outputs.
Fixed the questions. Fixed the AI prompt so skills actually appear in the verdict. Flipped the funnel: result first, offer after. Reduced the free preview to score and one sentence. Enough to intrigue, not enough to satisfy.
The bigger realization came from the comments here. You were right, it's a trust-before-conversion problem, not a traffic problem. The person sitting on an idea isn't in enough pain to pay €19 cold. ''Cool isn't painful'' as someone commented on the last post I had.
So I pivoted. Business coaches already have that audience. They run cohorts of aspiring founders and spend the first session figuring out who's ready. Soto as a pre-session assessment: branded for the coach, free for their first cohort, solves a real problem. Their students are exactly who this was built for. Sent 16 Instagram DMs to coaches in the past 3 days.
Two asks:
I'm launching on Product Hunt soon. If this journey meant anything to you, I'd love your support on launch day (I'll post the exact date here when it's confirmed).
And if you know any coaches running programs for aspiring entrepreneurs, please send them my way.
meetsoto.com . still €19, still brutally honest.
This is an incredible update. There is more real validation and growth in these 5 user tests than in 6 months of building in a vacuum. You’re doing textbook Indie Hacking here.
Here’s my deep dive into why this pivot is a massive win, and a couple of things to watch out for:
### 1. The Psychology Shift: "Cool isn't painful"
You hit the nail on the head. An aspiring founder sitting on an idea isn't in pain—they are in love. They are driven by excitement, not a burning problem. Trying to sell them a €19 "brutal reality check" cold is a tough sell because you're fighting their ego.
### 2. The B2B2C Pivot is Masterful
Shifting from targeting the dreamers to targeting the Business Coaches is a game-changer for three reasons:
### 3. Angle for Product Hunt
When you launch on Product Hunt, don't just launch "An AI Idea Validator." Launch the story of this pivot. The PH community loves transparency and data-driven execution. Share the "Cool isn't painful" realization in your maker comment. Show the before/after of your funnel. It builds instant rapport and drives upvotes.
### 💡 One Quick Suggestion for the Coach Outreach
When pitching these coaches, lean heavily into the co-branding angle. Coaches love looking like they are ahead of the curve. If the Soto report screen has a small line saying "Custom Assessment for [Coach's Academy/Name]", it turns your tool into a status symbol for them. It makes them look sophisticated, and they'll happily keep sending cohorts your way.
Keep us updated on the Product Hunt launch date here when it’s live. This level of rapid execution deserves a lot of support. Best of luck!
Thank you so much for taking the time into replying with these, really appreciate it!
The co-branding line on the report will sure be added before the next round of outreach. Also, will change the description on product hunt, i m all in for ''humanizing'' . Launching June 16, will share the link here soon. Thank you again!
This is a much stronger direction than selling €19 cold to idea-stage founders.
The coach angle makes sense because the trust already exists there, but I’d be careful not to treat it as just a distribution shortcut.
The important part is making the Product Hunt story and coach outreach story support the same decision, instead of pulling Soto in two directions.
That is hard to do properly in a thread because the useful version needs to be structured around the buyer, the launch angle, and what the coach should immediately understand.
If you’re open to it, share your email and I’ll put the tighter launch-positioning read together properly.
Yes, the two stories need to support the same positioning. The coach angle is the primary bet right now, PH is a visibility move, not a pivot itself. Happy to think through the tension you're pointing at if you want to continue here.
Possibly.
The reason I keep stopping short is that the tension itself isn't the useful part. The useful part is deciding which side wins when they eventually pull in different directions.
That's the kind of call that can end up shaping the launch, onboarding, and what people think Soto actually is.
I try not to make those decisions casually in-thread because once they're public, people tend to debate them before they're tested.