How to Launch an MVP as a First-Time Founder

Hey there. Happy Saturday! Today, I want to share how to launch an MVP as a First-Time Founder.

Last week, I met a founder at a tech event about growth. He came from a traditional business—plumbing. I was curious why he'd attended a tech-focused event. As we chatted, he revealed his passion for building a platform that connects plumbers with households.

He already has a successful plumbing business and has built his network and resources over years in the field. His idea was ambitious, he had funding, but he had no idea how to make it happen.

I discussed launching a waitlist, building a website to test ideas, and running false-door tests. These are common strategies in tech but completely new to him. He wasn't at the right event about growth—he needed an MVP to even get started with his idea.

That's why I want to share how to launch an MVP for non-technical people.

Start with distribution, not product

I want to revisit this concept:

Even technical founders often make the mistake of focusing on the product too early, launching MVPs without a clear plan for distribution. So let’s start with distribution, then move on to product building. I really like Greg Isenberg's model: ACP (Audience, Community, Product).

How do you distribute an idea that has no product yet?

The distribution playbook

Launch social media accounts
This is the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to get started. Focus on specific topics and become an expert in your niche. Identify which channels your ideal customers frequent and target those. As you post, you’ll receive impressions and likes, which will help you gauge people's interests and needs.

Build a waitlist
Describe your vision and ideas. Share the value and benefits people will get from signing up. Build anticipation by sending them weekly updates or insights about your product.

Launch a website
Once your idea is more solid, launch a website—even if it’s just a landing page with videos. At this stage, the CTA can still be "Join Waitlist"—it’s not a real product yet. Ask people to sign up and build your list from there.

Run ads
Now that you have a website, create different messages or offers targeting your audience and run ads through social media or Google. You can validate the effectiveness of your message and see what attracts the most attention. The offers can be false-door tests because there’s nothing behind the door yet.

Host events
If you want to establish real connections with your audience, try events that bring together lots of resources. We once worked with a dating startup. Instead of building a product first, I thought their best strategy would be to host weekly speed dating events and continuously expose their brand and app to their ideal customers.

Conduct user interviews
By now, you have a list of potential customers, though you may not know them well yet. Start reaching out for one-on-one chats. These sessions are time-consuming but crucial. If there's only one thing you can do from all the above, do this daily. It will help you build the best understanding of your customers.

Now let’s build that MVP

An MVP, by definition, isn’t supposed to be a perfect version of the product. As long as it functions and solves one problem, it achieves its goal—no matter how rough it looks. As someone from Y Combinator said: "If you're not embarrassed by your MVP, you're launching too late."

Your MVP can launch at the same time you're distributing, or as you distribute using the channels above. If you're not a technical founder, you'll need design and development resources. Since you're not ready to hire either role full-time, you can use fractional resources like design studios or development partners.

The design phase breakdown

Design has two key phases: low-fidelity (lofi) and high-fidelity (hifi).

The most difficult part for non-technical founders isn’t deciding what to build—it’s deciding what not to build. People without tech experience often feel they need to include everything in an MVP. By the time development finishes, it’s 1–2 years later.

That’s why tech companies have product managers (PMs). They divide features into phases and understand the concept of a real MVP. They only launch features that matter and test + iterate as they go.

Most designers work with PMs after the product requirements document (PRD) is final and features are locked. Without a PM, founders often struggle to work with individual designers, who want to respect the founder and listen to everything they say. But non-tech founders often don’t know how to break the process into stages.

The design process:

• Start with low-fidelity mockups to build alignment with the founder and team.

• Consider user testing sessions with these mockups—since they’ll look similar to the end product, users can provide honest, immediate feedback.

• Move to high-fidelity design to lock in the visual style.

• Hand off to engineering with detailed specifications and interactions.

Create a lightweight prototype or demo walkthrough

Before coding your MVP, build a clickable Figma prototype or a Loom walkthrough of your concept. Pair it with a story: what problem are you solving, and how? Share this with people on your waitlist, on social media, or in user interviews. It’s one of the fastest ways to test messaging, gather feedback, and spot friction—before any code is written.

Leverage communities for signal testing

Find where your audience already hangs out—Slack groups, Discord servers, Reddit, Product Hunt, indie founder groups. Instead of selling, contribute to discussions and casually mention your idea (e.g., “I’m working on X to solve Y—curious if anyone else struggles with this?”). The volume and tone of responses can validate pain points without even building a landing page.

Choosing your development partner

It’s better to hire development shops with full-stack capability, rather than just front-end or back-end specialists. Development usually costs founders the most because every tiny detail may need fixes, and non-technical founders can’t maintain the system themselves.

Look for partners who understand the MVP mentality—they should be comfortable building something functional but not perfect. The best development partners will push back when you try to add too many features and help you prioritize what needs to be built first.

The MVP launch strategy: leveraging your existing distribution

Here’s where the magic happens. By the time your MVP is ready, you're not launching into the void—you’ve already built an audience, gathered insights, and established trust. Now you get to leverage everything you've created during the initial distribution phase.

Phase 1: Soft launch to your waitlist
Start with the people who've been following your journey. These are your early adopters—they’re already invested in your vision and more forgiving of rough edges. Send them exclusive early access before anyone else. This serves multiple purposes: you get initial feedback from friendly users, you reward their patience, and you create social proof for the broader launch.

Phase 2: Turn user interviews into case studies
Remember those one-on-one conversations you had during distribution? Now you can circle back to those same people with your actual product. Some of them will become your first real users, and their feedback will become incredibly valuable testimonials and case studies for your launch.

Phase 3: Activate your social media following
Your social media audience has been watching your journey unfold. They’ve seen the behind-the-scenes content, the challenges, and the progress updates. When you finally launch, it feels like a natural progression, not just a random product announcement. Share launch updates, user testimonials, and progress metrics.

Phase 4: Leverage your network from events
Those connections you made at industry events? It’s time to reconnect. Reach out personally to let them know you’ve launched. Many will be curious to see what you've built, and some might even become early advocates or customers.

Making the most of launch momentum

Set clear success metrics
Before you launch, define what success looks like. Is it 100 signups in the first week? 10 paying customers in the first month? Having these metrics helps you stay focused and measure real progress.

Create a feedback loop
Your MVP launch isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting line. Set up systems to collect user feedback continuously. This could be in-app feedback tools, regular check-in emails, or scheduled user calls. The insights you gather will drive your next iteration.

Document everything
Keep track of what works and what doesn’t during your launch. Which distribution channels drove the most quality users? What messaging resonated best? Which features got the most usage? This data becomes invaluable for scaling your efforts.

Plan your iteration roadmap
Based on initial user feedback and usage patterns, start planning your next phase of development. What features are users requesting most? What friction points need to be addressed first? Having a clear roadmap helps you stay focused and communicate progress to your growing user base.

Four high-leverage additions

1. Add a referral trigger to your MVP launch
One of the biggest missed opportunities during an MVP launch is not building in lightweight virality. At this point, your waitlist and early adopters trust you—make it easy (and rewarding) for them to share.

Add a simple CTA in your onboarding, confirmation email, or in-app success message:

“Know someone who’d love this? Share this link and get early access to new features.”

A referral loop doesn’t have to be perfect—but if 10% of your early users bring in one more user, you’re compounding growth from day one.

2. Use “launch-as-content” to expand your reach
Don’t just announce the launch—teach through it. Break your launch into stories:

• How you landed your first 50 users

• The mistakes you made before writing any code

• What feedback surprised you the most

This meta-content can go viral on LinkedIn, X, or even Substack, drawing in founders, creators, or developers who share your mindset—and may also become your future users.

3. Run a structured onboarding cohort
After the soft launch to your waitlist, run a small cohort-style onboarding group—5 to 10 users you meet with weekly for 2–3 weeks. You’ll build community, drive usage, and get direct feedback in real time.

This format turns passive signups into active champions—especially if you highlight their wins publicly later.

4. Layer in founder-led sales with “high intent” leads
During MVP, distribution isn’t just about reach—it’s about depth. The highest signal users from your waitlist, social followers, and user interviews should get a personal message from you as the founder. Not a campaign blast—an actual 1:1 email or DM.

Invite them to a call. Ask what they’re struggling with. Sell with curiosity, not pressure. This helps you:

• Close your first paying users faster

• Learn objections and how to handle them

• Build the foundation for pricing and packaging

You can multiply this compound effect by adding simple referral loops, turning your launch into teachable stories, and going deeper with your highest intent users. MVP success isn’t just about launching—it’s about learning faster and scaling smarter.

The compound effect of doing distribution first

By starting with distribution and audience building, you’ve created something most first-time founders don’t have: a built-in growth engine. Your early users become your advocates. Your social media followers become your marketing team. Your email list becomes your focus group.

This approach also dramatically reduces your risk. Instead of spending months building something in isolation, you’ve validated demand, refined your messaging, and built relationships before writing a single line of code.

The bottom line

Building an MVP as a non-technical founder isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about asking the right questions and finding the right partners. Start with understanding your audience, validate your ideas through distribution channels, and then build the simplest version that solves a real problem.

Remember: your first version doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to exist and provide value. Everything else can be improved based on real user feedback.

The founder with the plumbing platform? He’s now three months into building his audience, has 500 people on his waitlist, and just started working with a development partner. He’s not launching blind—he’s launching with momentum.

What’s holding you back from launching your MVP? Hit reply and let me know—I’d love to help you think through it.

Share my newsletter

Loving my content so far? I’d appreciate if you can share my newsletter to a friend 🙂