Distribution before product
If you cannot reach a hundred specific people who would care, the build is not de-risked. The simplest filter Acilox uses before green-lighting surface area.
Most products fail at distribution before they fail at product. Acilox flips the order on purpose: reach has to be plausible before engineering hours compound.
The hundred-person test
Before we commit to building a net-new surface, we require a list of one hundred specific people (or named accounts) who would plausibly want the outcome — not a persona slide. If we cannot get there by enumerating relevant communities, customers, partners, and qualified inbound, the idea does not pass the gate.
Why one hundred
- Enough to launch — if five to ten percent convert on day one, that is five to ten customers. That is enough signal to justify the next increment of scope.
- Forces specificity — “founders” is not a list. “Operators running lean SaaS under fifty seats who already use shared calendars” is closer to a list you can actually message.
- Humility check — if the names do not exist, the audience is a story, not a market.
If you cannot reach one hundred
Do not build the product first. Build the audience: three substantive posts, three targeted conversations, one hosted session. Acilox Reads and The Acilox Briefing exist partly so distribution is never an afterthought.
Distribution is leverage. Distribution is the moat. Distribution is the product — before the product is the product.