How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Pre-MVP Waitlist to Validate Demand

Most idea-stage founders worry they need a working product before they can prove demand. In this episode, Lucas and Luna walk through the counterintuitive strategy of launching a pre-MVP waitlist — and how it actually generates stronger investor traction than a half-built prototype. They break down the specific numbers from a recent B2B SaaS case: a founder who collected 790 waitlist signups before writing a single line of code, using only a landing page, LinkedIn outreach, and a manual onboarding trick. The episode covers conversion benchmarks (a 12 percent signup-to-waitlist ratio), the psychological difference between 'I built this' and 'people want this' in a pitch deck, and why one specific investor asked for the waitlist data before the product demo. Lucas and Luna also debate where the line is between pre-validation and over-optimization, and share a simple spreadsheet template founders can use to track waitlist-to-paid conversion before launch. #PreSeed #IdeaStage #WaitlistStrategy #FounderTips #Validation #Business #Technology #Startup #DemandValidation #InvestorPitch #SaaS #B2B #FounderLedSales #NoCode #LandingPage #LinkedInOutreach #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo