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I didn’t build a product. I built a tiny community first — here’s what happened in 25 days I kept hearing the same advice: “Build fast. Launch fast.” But one thing bothered me — launch where? and to whom? So instead of building a product, I started a very 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, 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 building the product? Would love to learn from others who’ve tried similar experiments.