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Comment by andrewfromx | Hacker News Reader

I would rather the page be a full on live product page where the user can buy it and checkout. Then tell them we are still in development. Offer them a place on the wait-list or refund their money. The slider asking how much would you pay IF this product exists doesn't work. To really test it the customer has to believe they are really committing funds.

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While pre-payments might seem like stronger validation, there are good reasons not to take this approach:

1. It's a common scam tactic - many fake founders collect payments for products they never build 2. It can break trust, even with refund options 3. Users actually give better feedback when they know they're helping shape a product

MVP-It focuses on high-intent signals instead: feature requests, pricing feedback, and verified interested users. These are reliable indicators without the ethical risks.

Have you found ways to use pre-payments while maintaining trust?

ok good points. No there will be some angry people for sure. The other big problem is getting traffic. After launch do you offer some good traffic way cheaper than buying real ads?

You're right about traffic being crucial. MVP-It saves you time by having everything ready in one platform - no need to cobble together different tools for your landing page, analytics, and feedback collection.

Then it's up to you to run the outreach: finding potential users on X, Reddit, or relevant communities and sharing your landing page with them. This targeted approach often works better than ads for validation.

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