The Founder's Guide to Early Adopters for New Software

I see this all the time. Founders, developers, smart people with a brilliant idea for a piece of software. You spend months, maybe years, pouring everything into building the perfect product. Then you flip the switch, launch, and... crickets. The problem isn't the product; it's that you started selling way too late. You waited until it was 'finished' to try and build demand. You need to start now, before you even write the final line of code. Getting early adopters for feedback and validation isn't just a 'nice to have', it's the only way to avoid building something nobody wants to pay for. Forget the full launch for a moment. Let's talk about how to get a queue of people banging on your virtual door, ready to use your software the second it’s available.

The whole process is a lot less about having a finished product and a lot more about understanding people, their problems, and making them an offer they can't ignore. It’s about creating momentum out of thin air.

So, Who Are You Actually Building This For? (Forget Your ICP Persona)

Right, first things first. Rip up that document that says your Ideal Customer Profile is "Sarah, a 35-year-old marketing manager at a mid-size tech company". It's a waste of paper. That tells you absolutely nothing useful. It leads to bland, generic ads and landing pages that try to appeal to everyone and end up convincing no one. You need to get uncomfortably specific.

Your real ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state. A nightmare. What is the specific, urgent, and expensive problem that keeps your ideal customer awake at 3 AM? Your job is to become the world's leading expert on that nightmare. Let's make this real. Say you're building a new accounting software. Your ICP isn't "small business owners". That's lazy. A more specific nightmare might be: "freelance creatives who are brilliant at their craft but absolutly dread invoicing because they spend hours chasing payments, messing up VAT calculations, and are terrified of a letter from HMRC." See the difference? One is a demographic, the other is a feeling. One is data, the other is a story.

You don't sell "accounting software". You sell "the feeling of getting paid on time, every time, without the admin headache". You sell "confidence at tax time". Once you've defined the nightmare, your entire strategy becomes clear. Your ad copy writes itself. The features you prioritise become obvious. And most importantly, you know exactly where to find these people.

They aren't just "on Facebook". They're in specific Facebook Groups like 'Being Freelance Community'. They're listening to podcasts like 'The Freelance Way'. They're reading blogs by people who've solved these problems. Your first job isn't to build a waitlist; it's to do the detective work, find these watering holes, and just listen. Understand the exact language they use to describe their pain. This is the intelligence that will fuel your entire launch.

Why Would Anyone Sign Up to a Waitlist? (Hint: They Won't)

Let's be brutally honest. Nobody cares about your "coming soon" page. Nobody is excited to give you their email address just to be put on another mailing list. The "Join Our Waitlist" button is one of the weakest calls to action in marketing. It's a high-friction, zero-value proposition. You're asking for something (their email) and offering basically nothing in return except a vague promise of something, someday.

You need to kill that button and replace it with an irresistible offer. Your offer's only job is to provide a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes them think, "Wow, if their free stuff is this good, the actual product must be incredible." You must solve a small, real problem for them, for free, right now. You need to bottle a piece of your expertise and give it away.

What does this look like for a pre-launch SaaS?

• -> A Free Tool: If you're building that accounting software for freelancers, maybe you create a simple, free "Freelance Rate Calculator" or a "Late Payment Interest Calculator". Something they can use instantly to solve a tiny part of their bigger nightmare.
• -> An Expert Checklist: Create a "The 5-Minute Invoice Sanity Check" PDF. A simple, beautifully designed checklist that helps them avoid the most common invoicing mistakes.
• -> An Exclusive Community: Don't just offer a waitlist, offer "exclusive access to our private beta community". Create a Slack or Discord channel where the first 100 users can chat directly with the founders, give feedback, and shape the product. This makes them feel like insiders, not just prospects.
• -> A Guaranteed Launch Offer: Offer a concrete incentive. "Join the beta list today and get 50% off your first year, guaranteed." Or even a lifetime deal for the first 50 users. This rewards early believers and creates genuine urgency. I remember one software client who generated over $30k from lifetime deal sales to their waitlist.

The goal is to shift the psychology from "I guess I'll sign up" to "I can't afford to miss out on this". Your offer is the engine of your pre-launch campaign. Without a powerful one, you're just spinning your wheels.

How Do I Build a Landing Page That Actually Converts?

Once you have your nightmare ICP and your irresistible offer, you need a place to put it. This is your pre-launch landing page. Its job is simple: convince the right person to take your offer in under 30 seconds. Most people get this wrong. They fill it with jargon, feature lists, and boring stock photos. You need to do the opposite.

The most powerful copywriting framework for this is the Before-After-Bridge.

• -> The Before: You start by twisting the knife. Describe their current nightmare in vivid detail, using the language you learned from your research. "Dreading the end of the month? Spending your weekend wrestling with spreadsheets and chasing invoices instead of doing the creative work you love?" Make them nod their head and think, "That's me."
• -> The After: Paint a picture of the promised land. What does life look like after they use your software? "Imagine closing your laptop at 5 PM on a Friday, knowing every client has been invoiced automatically, your cash flow is predictable, and you're ready for tax season. That's not a dream." Sell the destination, not the plane.
• -> The Bridge: This is where you introduce your software as the bridge to get them from their 'Before' state to the 'After' state. Don't list features. Show them. Use high-quality mockups, animated GIFs of the UI in action, or even a short, slick video of you walking through a Figma prototype. Show, don't just tell.

And make it trustworthy. Put your name and face on the page. Link to your personal Twitter or LinkedIn. People buy from people, especially in the early stages. A bit of profesional copy can go a long way to making the whole thing feel more credible. This isn't the time for anonymity. You're asking them to take a chance on you, so you need to show them who you are.

Right, I've Got a Page. Where Do I Find These People?

Okay, you've got a killer page and an offer that's too good to refuse. Now you need eyeballs. There are two main paths here, and you should probably use a bit of both: the free-but-slow route and the paid-but-fast route.

The Free Route: Great for Validation & Early Feedback

This is where you roll up your sleeves. The goal isn't huge numbers; it's to get your first 10, 20, 50 true fans who will give you priceless feedback.

• -> Launch Directories: Sites like Product Hunt, BetaList, and Indie Hackers are built for this. But don't just dump a link and run. Engage with the community first. Comment on other projects. Share your journey. When you do post, tell a story. People back founders, not just products.
• -> Niche Communities: Find those subreddits, Slack channels, and Facebook groups where your nightmare ICP hangs out. The golden rule here is: give, give, give, then ask. Become a helpful member of the community for weeks before you ever mention your product. Answer questions. Share resources. When you've built up some trust, you can post something like, "Hey everyone, I've been struggling with [the nightmare] for ages and I'm building a little tool to solve it. I also made this free checklist to help. Would love your feedback." It's an offer of value, not a sales pitch.

The Paid Route: Great for Scaling & Predictability

Once you've got some initial validation from the free channels and you're confident your offer resonates, it might be time to pour some fuel on the fire with paid ads. This isn't about vanity metrics; it's about buying data and scaling up your sign-ups. I wouldn't start this untill you have a bit of a budget and your launch is getting closer.

• -> Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram): This is often the best place to start for B2C or B2B software targeting smaller businesses. You can target based on interests (e.g., people who like 'QuickBooks' or follow 'Freelancers Union'), job titles, or even create lookalike audiences based on your initial waitlist sign-ups. I've seen B2B software campaigns get registrations for as low as $2.38 each on Meta when the targeting and offer are spot on.
• -> Google Search Ads: This is powerful if your ICP is actively searching for a solution to their problem. You can bid on keywords like "freelance invoicing software" or "best accounting app for creatives". You're catching people with high intent, but it can be more expensive. One of our software clients managed to get over 3,500 users at just £0.96 per user by nailing their Google Ads strategy.

The key with paid ads is to start small, test relentlessly, and be prepared to lose a bit of money while you figure out what works. But once you find a winning combination of audience and creative, you have a predictable way to grow your waitlist on demand.

How Much Should I Be Willing to Pay for an Email Address?

This is the question that stops most founders from using paid ads. They see a cost per sign-up of £5 or £10 and panic. "That's too expensive!" But is it? The only way to answer that is to stop thinking about cost and start thinking about value. Specifically, Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Even though you don't have customers yet, you need to estimate your LTV. This is the single most important number for your business. It dictates your entire marketing budget. How much will a customer be worth to you over their entire relationship with your company? Let's do some simple maths.

Now, once you know your LTV, you can work backwards. A healthy LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio is often cited as 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to one-third of your LTV to acquire a customer. So, if your LTV is £800, your target CAC is around £266.

But you're not acquiring customers yet, you're acquiring waitlist sign-ups. So you need to make one more estimate: what percentage of your waitlist will convert into paying customers? Let's be conservative and say 10%. Now the maths is simple:

Target Cost Per Sign-up = Target CAC * Waitlist Conversion Rate
Target Cost Per Sign-up = £266 * 10% = £26.60

Suddenly, paying £5, £10, or even £20 for a highly qualified email address on your waitlist doesn't seem so expensive. It looks like an incredibly smart investment. This calculation removes emotion and replaces it with strategy. It allows you to compete for attention confidently, knowing that every pound you spend is building a pipeline of future, profitable customers. This is how you move from hoping for users to building a machine that creates them.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a more scannable format:

Getting these first users is a seperate skill from building great software. It involves a lot of testing, a deep understanding of marketing psychology, and knowing which levers to pull on which ad platforms. It’s easy to burn through a lot of money very quickly if you don't know what you're doing, especially in the early days when every pound counts.

If you've read through this and feel a bit overwhelmed, or just want a second pair of expert eyes on your pre-launch plan, that's what we do. We offer a completely free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session where we can audit your plan, look at your landing page, and give you some actionable advice to get you started on the right foot. It can often make the difference between a launch that flies and one that flops.