Build a prelaunch audience

Gather an audience that's ready to buy before you open the doors.

4 steps, 24 questions, laid out in the order you'll hit them

Each step is a topic with the real questions D2C founders ask; open whichever one you're stuck on for the answer and the resources on it.

1. 1
   Pre-launch & building an audience

   Have people waiting before you open the doors.

   How do I build an audience before I even have a product ready to sell? 4 → Should I collect free email signups or charge a small deposit for my waitlist? 3 → How many people do I actually need on my waitlist before I launch in India? 3 → What's the fastest way to start a WhatsApp/Instagram following before I even have inventory? 3 → Which one pre-launch channel should I actually focus on instead of trying everything at once? 3 → All 6 questions in Pre-launch & building an audience →
2. 2
   Content & social media

   Show up daily so the ad has somewhere to land.

   Should I be on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Pinterest, or just pick one? Where do I actually put my limited time? 4 → I'm a team of two - what should I actually be posting every week, and how do I build a system so it doesn't fall apart after month one? 4 → Should I be paying for polished brand shoots or just running UGC campaigns - what actually converts for a D2C brand? 3 → How do I get more mileage out of one shoot instead of creating from scratch for every platform? 4 → Should I, the founder, be on camera building a personal brand, or should that be the brand account's job? 4 → All 6 questions in Content & social media →
3. 3
   Influencer & UGC seeding

   Get real people posting your product early.

   What exactly is influencer/UGC seeding, and how is it different from paying for a sponsored post? 3 → How many creators should I seed to for a first wave, and what should I budget? 3 → How do I actually run my first product-seeding campaign, step by step? 3 → How do I find creators to seed to before I can afford Kofluence or a UGC platform? 3 → What can I learn from how Mamaearth used influencers and word-of-mouth before it had a big budget? 3 → All 6 questions in Influencer & UGC seeding →
4. 4
   Founder-led selling & community

   In the early days, you are the brand.

   Should I make myself the face of the brand, or keep the brand separate from my personal identity? 3 → Is it actually worth me personally replying to every DM and WhatsApp message in the early days? 2 → What does 'founder-led selling' actually look like day to day in the first few months? 3 → Is it worth me personally showing up in my brand's WhatsApp group or Instagram comments, or should I hand that off early? 3 → At what point do I need to stop being the one doing all the selling myself? 3 → All 6 questions in Founder-led selling & community →