Hey Reader,
A founder was telling me he was worried about getting 'bad' signups. He was hesitant to go broad with outreach because he didn't want users who weren't a perfect fit and would eventually cancel.
I stopped him. You are in the discovery stage. You have zero idea who your Ideal Customer Profile actually is – you only have a hypothesis written on a slide deck.
The obsession with defining a narrow ICP before you have data is one of the most common forms of 'productive' procrastination. You feel like you're doing important strategy work, but you're just polishing a fantasy. The goal right now isn't to attract the perfect customer. The goal is to get on calls.
You can't optimize what you haven't validated. Your spreadsheet of dream customers means nothing until they start booking demos.
Unexpected interest is the purest signal of product-market fit. If you're targeting SaaS and suddenly a dozen fashion brands book calls, that's not a distraction – that's the market knocking on your door.
Even professional lead gen agencies will tell you to go broad if you can't prove your ICP with real sales data. They know that until then, 'for all we know, your audience is B2C in India.'
The Clarity Filter Insight
Your Ideal Customer Profile is not a document you write, it's a truth you uncover through sales calls.[Share on LinkedIn] [Share on X]
Stop staring at your ICP document. Go talk to ten people who you think are the 'wrong' fit. You might discover they're exactly who you've been looking for.
Speak soon, — Dmitry
P.S. Don't write code for a product nobody wants to buy. I built Traction OS to give you the exact 60-day roadmap, sales scripts, and validation templates you need to hit your first $10k MRR without guessing. From complete scratch or with an existing MVP.