Pre-Launch Chat: Talk to Customers Before You Have a Product

You're building a product. You've got a landing page. Maybe some traffic. A "Join the waitlist" button.

And then... crickets.

People visit. They read your value prop. Some even enter their email.

But you have no idea:

You're flying blind. Building in the dark. Hoping you got it right.

What if there was a way to talk to potential customers before you build anything? To learn what they need in real-time, while they're hot and interested?

There is. It's called pre-launch chat. And it's one of the highest-signal tools you can use.

As a founder launching a new product, you might have spent 3 months building a website, an MVP product, and more.

And I’m sure you’re proud of it. Solid product. Clean UI. Ready to launch.

Then you put up a landing page: "The all-in-one workspace for freelancers."

You run some ads. Get 500 visitors in the first week.

42 people signed up for the waitlist.

8% conversion. Not terrible. But... something feels off.

One founder, Alex, did something unusual: He installed a live chat widget on the landing page.

Not a chatbot. A real "Talk to the founder" chat.

And he sat there, watching. Whenever someone landed on the page, a small message popped up:

Within 10 minutes, someone messaged:

Alex explained the features. The person responded:

Wait. What?

Alex chatted with 23 people that week.

19 of them said the same thing: They didn't need another project management tool. They needed help with lead gen and proposals.

Alex's response: He scrapped 80% of his original product and pivoted.

Instead of another PM tool, he built:

Three months later, he launched the new version.

Result: 2,500 waitlist signups (up from 42). 300 paying customers in the first month. $15K MRR by month two.

Most founders treat their landing page like a billboard: one-way communication.

You say: "Here's what we're building."

Visitor thinks: "Okay... maybe... I guess I'll sign up... or not."

Then they leave. And you learn nothing.

Pre-launch chat flips the script.

You say: "Here's what we're building. What do you think?"

Visitor says: "Actually, I need X, not Y. And here's why I'm hesitant..."

Now you're learning. In real-time. From the exact people you're building for.

Here's what pre-launch chat gives you:

1. Unfiltered feedback: People tell you what they really think when you ask, especially if they know they're talking to the founder.

2. Feature validation: You discover which features matter (and which are nice-to-haves).

3. Objection handling: You learn why people don't sign up—pricing concerns, missing features, skepticism—and you can address it immediately.

4. Customer development at scale: Instead of scheduling 50 user interviews, you catch people in the moment, when they're interested.

5. Early relationships: Some of those chat conversations turn into beta users, advisors, or even paying customers before you launch.

Think of pre-launch chat as continuous customer discovery on autopilot.

Stop guessing. Start listening.

Here's how to set up pre-launch chat and use it to validate (or pivot) your product before you build it: