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How to Find Early Users from Reddit, HN & Communities (Not Cold Lists)

Find high-intent early users where they already ask for tools—Reddit, Hacker News, Slacks, and forums. Discover customers from conversations, not generic cold lists.

how to find early usersfirst users startupearly adopters SaaS

This guide expands on: How to find customers from real conversations—the pillar playbook to find customers from conversations. Wavly helps you discover high-intent users from the homepage.

You do not need a huge audience. You need a narrow who and a repeatable way to talk to them.

This post focuses on finding early users through real conversations—Reddit, Hacker News, Slacks, and forums—because that is where intent language shows up before people know your brand exists. For the full Reddit + HN workflow, use How to find customers from real conversations. To run scans across platforms with scoring and attribution, see Wavly.

Step 1: Write one sentence about who is not for you

Early user search goes wrong when you say "everyone who needs productivity." Instead:

  • "Indie SaaS founders shipping solo who hate CRM bloat."
  • "Dev teams under 20 on AWS who need X."

That sentence becomes your filter for threads, intros, and copy.

Step 2: Fish where they ask questions

Spend time in:

  • Ask HN threads that match your category.
  • Subreddits where your ICP compares tools (see Reddit leads for SaaS).
  • Slack/Discord groups that allow honest tool talk (read rules first).

Your goal is not virality. It is ten real conversations with people who have the problem this quarter.

Step 3: Offer a sharp slice of help

Early users respond to specificity:

  • "Here is how we solved Y without Z."
  • "If your constraint is A, start with B; if it is C, avoid D."

Then—only if true—mention what you built and invite them to try or give feedback.

Step 4: One loop per week

  • 5 discovery touches (DM, reply, intro).
  • 3 follow-ups from last week.
  • 1 improvement to onboarding or positioning based on what you heard.

Repeat for eight weeks before deciding the channel "does not work."

When to add tooling

When you are consistent manually but losing hours to tabs and search, use a system to surface and prioritize threads. Wavly targets that stage: same discipline, less thrash.

Links: Home · Pillar guide · First 10 users

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.Where do early users actually come from?

Usually a handful of places where your ICP already gathers: niche communities, founder networks, support channels of adjacent tools, and public threads asking for recommendations.

Q.How long until I should expect signups?

If you have clear positioning and talk to people with the problem, you should see signal within a few weeks of consistent outreach—not necessarily volume, but qualified conversations.

Related articles

Same topical cluster—internal links help readers and search engines map our customer-discovery content.

Get Your First 10 SaaS Customers from Reddit & Real Conversations

Find your first 10 customers from public threads: discover high-intent users on Reddit and Hacker News, reply with substance, and track which discussions convert.

Validate Demand in Public Threads—Then Find Customers Faster

Find high-intent signals in real conversations: validate problem, solution, and willingness to pay using Reddit and forum language—then turn that proof into customer acquisition, not endless deck cycles.

SaaS Customer Discovery from Reddit, HN & Communities (No Spam)

Find customers and early users from real conversations: Ask HN, subreddits, and developer communities—reply with substance, attribute signups, skip cold outreach spam.