We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. It starts with eChai Startup Demo Day on 26 September, all in person. 11 cities confirmed, 152 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city
Launch & get your first customers

Which one pre-launch channel should I actually focus on instead of trying everything at once?

Use Gabriel Weinberg's Bullseye method: list every channel you could try (Instagram, WhatsApp, a waitlist landing page, referrals, PR, offline pop-ups), run a cheap one-week test in 3-4 of them, then go all-in on whichever one actually produced signups or sales, not likes. Most first-time Indian D2C founders over-index on paid ads too early; the free channel that usually wins pre-launch is personal network plus Instagram, because trust travels faster than reach at zero brand recognition. Revisit the choice every few weeks - your core channel pre-launch is often not your core channel at scale.

Go deeper

3 resources, 2 link-checked.

📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Beginner

The full-length treatment of the Bullseye framework with worked examples across all 19 channels, worth the read once you're deciding where to spend your limited early hours, not just your money. A durable reference, not a one-time skim.

Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

From Portfolio by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares

  • Detailed, channel-by-channel playbooks including offline and community tactics
  • Case studies of early-stage companies choosing an unlikely core channel
  • Good complement to the free Bullseye summary once you want the depth
Open amazon.com
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

An agency-side view that pushes back on vanity signup counts and insists on tracking who actually converts, a useful gut-check once your list starts looking impressively large but sales don't follow. Good second opinion to run against the more upbeat waitlist-growth pieces.

The Waitlist Strategy: How to Build Pre-Launch Demand That Actually Converts

From Blazon Agency by Blazon Agency

  • Distinguishes vanity signups from genuinely convertible leads
  • Practical framing for treating the waitlist as a funnel, not a headcount
  • Warns against overbuilding hype you can't operationally back up
Open blazonagency.com
📄 Article
Free Intermediate

The clearest short framework for choosing which single channel to bet on for your first 100 orders instead of spreading effort thin across five. Read it before, not after, you've burned a month testing everything at once.

The Bullseye Framework for Getting Traction

From Medium by Gabriel Weinberg

  • 19 traction channels to shortlist before you commit
  • Test cheap, then focus hard on the channel that actually converts
  • Applies just as well to a physical D2C product as to a SaaS tool
Open medium.com

Terms in this answer

People also ask

Also in Starting Up

The same ground, over in Get your first customers, our Starting Up track.

eChai Partner Brands