7. Testing the Waters: Finding the users who will love our app
How I Used Reddit to Gauge Interest Before Building Anything
Welcome back.
In the last article, we fleshed out an app idea: a directory of plugins that have proven successful in one marketplace (like Shopify) but don’t yet exist in another.
Today, we’re shifting gears. It’s time to pitch the idea to potential users—to find a small, interested group who might beta test and eventually buy the app.
A Quick Reminder: Who We’re Building For
Ideal customer: the serial plugin creator or app development agency.
These are the folks who consistently build apps across ecosystems—Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, and so on—and who would love an edge in spotting what to build next.
Step 1: Testing Interest Publicly on Reddit
We’re starting simple: posting on Reddit to see if anyone bites. This helps us gauge both interest and competition. If someone replies with, “Oh, that already exists,” that’s valuable too.
Once we’ve gathered some responses, the next step will be to reach out directly to individuals in the right audience.
Because we’re not cloning an existing idea, validation is critical. If this app already existed and had traction, we could be confident there’s a market. But since it doesn’t (as far as we know), we need to test demand manually.
Timing Matters on Reddit
When posting on reddit, timing matters a lot.
Tuesday through Thursday tends to perform best—many people don’t browse niche subreddits on weekends. Time zones also make a big difference.
Since this is a side project alongside a full-time job, I don’t want to stress about optimal timing. Instead, I use postpone.app to schedule posts automatically. It even suggests the best posting times based on subreddit activity.
That means I can queue everything up over the weekend and check back the next one to see results.
(For alternatives, mediafa.st offers similar functionality—no sponsorships here, just tools I like.)
Step 2: Crafting the Message
At this stage, we’re not trying to sell anything or sound profound—just putting out feelers.
We identified subreddits that attract our target users—Shopify app developers and aspiring plugin makers. Based on Postpone’s recommendations, I chose:
r/shopifyappdev
r/vibecodecamp
r/startup_ideas
r/microsaas
Here’s the post I shared:
Hello.
I’m surprised there isn’t a directory of all apps across different marketplaces (e.g. Shopify, WooCommerce) that highlights which apps are missing from each platform.For example, imagine filtering to see the highest-revenue WooCommerce apps that don’t have a Shopify equivalent.
Does anyone know of a tool that does this? I’m considering building a prototype.
The Results
The post got around 1,000 views, a few upvotes, and no comments.
Not exactly viral—but informative.
Out of those 1,000 readers, no one mentioned a competitor, which suggests the idea is relatively new. On the other hand, it didn’t seem to strike a nerve as an urgent problem for that audience.
Still, that’s progress. It’s one more data point on our path to validation.
Next Step: Reaching Out Directly
In the next article, we’ll move from public testing to direct outreach.
That means identifying and messaging individuals in the community to start real conversations.
The goal: to understand whether this problem resonates and what shape the solution should take.