---
layout: post
title: Stop asking your friends and family to be early adopters
description: |
                I've grown to detest the idea of the "friends and family" release. Here's some
                canned responses to common reasons why startups choose to release to their
                friends rather than actually finding some early adopters.
---

I've grown to detest the idea of the "friends and family" release. Here's some
canned responses to common reasons why startups choose to release to their
friends rather than actually finding some early adopters.

### But it's not ready yet

Unless it's useless, you don't know whether it's ready yet. The sooner you get
out and speak to your customers, the sooner you learn about what works and what
doesn't. It's better to start this journey now with a handful of early adopters
than launch in six months with all your imagined features.

### But we're in stealth

Stealth doesn't mean isolating yourselves from your customers. The risk of your
company failing because you built a product nobody wants is way higher than the
risk of an early adopter giving away your product to a competitor, and then that
competitor dropping everything to beat you to market.

### But they invested

If they're in the target market, see ["But they are in the target market"](#but-they-are-in-the-target-market).

If they're not, give them a demo instead. They won't be able give you meaningful
feedback.

### But what if our competitors see it?

See ["But we're in stealth"](#but-were-in-stealth).

### But we don't know who will like it yet

Why are you building a product without an idea of who needs it?

### But they are in the target market

If your target market is pretty much everyone, then you're unlikely to find a
problem common between them that you can solve effectively. [Pick a target market][target].

If you have a specific market in mind for your product, and some of your friends
and family fall into it, this is probably the exception. But beware, they aren't
a neutral party. Even if they don't use it, they'll likely tell you they love it
anyway.

## Why do I need to find my early adopters?

Pleasing your early adopters is how you enter your market, and gain customers.
At the beginning of your startup journey, you should be looking at your target
market and finding a group of people poorly served by your competitors, and
collaborating with them to build something they can use.

If you're not your target market, you need to know them well. You can't build
something in isolation from them and expect them to use it.

[target]: https://blog.castle.co/your-startups-target-market

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