Agree on ship early/ship often, but most of the startups I've observed (granted, a small sample) didn't skip customer development because potential customers wouldn't call them back. By and large, I think most folks are willing to sit down with you for a cup of coffee for 30 mins and talk about their needs and how your product could help, especially if you make it clear up-front that this is not a sales call.

YMMV, but we've had great success with just sending an email or picking up the phone and asking people if we could chat for a bit.