Week 1 of real testing — the gap between "useful idea" and "used tool"

I'm building Pastable — a desktop app that saves UI components from Figma, Webflow, or plain HTML and lets you paste them back into any of those tools. Think: personal component library that works across your whole stack.

The idea validates well. Every designer/dev I talk to says "yeah, I copy-paste components constantly and it's painful." Reddit threads about repetitive tasks and component reuse get tons of engagement.

But week 1 of real alpha testing is humbling. I sent the app to 5 early signups. The result so far:

• 1 person tried it (on Mac, ran into Gatekeeper issues)
• 2 never responded to the download link
• 2 said "thanks" and went quiet

The product works on my machine. But getting someone to download a desktop app from an unknown dev, fight past OS security warnings, and rebuild their muscle memory around new tooling? That's the real gap.

Curious if other solo founders hit this wall early on — where the problem is validated but adoption friction kills your first tests. What worked for you to turn "interested" into "actually using"?