The biggest mistake first-time founders make isn't a technical error; it is a fundamental misunderstanding of risk. Most entrepreneurs spend months—and thousands of dollars—building a product in a vacuum, only to launch to the sound of crickets. They believe that "building it" is the hard part, and "selling it" comes later. In reality, the most successful brands are built in reverse. They use copywriting for growth to validate demand, attract an audience, and pre-sell the solution before a single line of code is written or a single manufacturer is contacted.
The Highest-Leverage Growth Skill: Why Copywriting Wins
For any founder, the ability to write words that move people to action is the ultimate money-making skill. As Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle, often notes, you can either learn to make things, learn to sell things, or learn to hunt down deals. Copywriting is the unique intersection of all three. It allows you to "sell" at scale without physically being present.
Think of it as the evolution of the "hot dog stand" mentality. When you are standing on a street corner selling hot dogs, your income is capped by your physical presence and the heat of the sun. But when you master sales copywriting for founders, you can write a pitch once and have an infinite number of people read it on the internet. You move from manual labor to automated marketing. You stop being a street vendor and start being a digital architect.
To succeed, you must move beyond being "nonchalant" about your business. You have to be "shalant"—meaning you try hard, you do the research, and you obsess over the message. This shift from physical hustle to digital leverage is what separates a $50k-a-year side project from a million-dollar brand.
Identifying Demand: Using Forums and Message Boards
Before you write a single word of sales copy, you need to know what people are already looking for. A common pre-selling strategy is to look for "forgotten businesses" or niche communities where demand is high but the competition is weak. This is exactly how Sam Parr identified the market for novelty moonshine and poison ivy treatments.
By monitoring message boards and Reddit, you can find people complaining about specific problems or searching for products that don't yet exist in a modern format. If people are already searching on Google for a solution, half your battle is won. You don't need to create demand; you just need to intercept it.
- Step 1: Find a niche forum or subreddit related to your industry.
- Step 2: Look for recurring questions that start with "How do I..." or "Where can I find..."
- Step 3: Use tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner to see if people are actively searching for these terms.
- Step 4: Draft a simple landing page using Framer or Carrd that addresses that exact pain point.
"The secret to success is weak competition. Find spaces where the 'ballers' aren't looking, and own the conversation through superior copy."The Pre-Selling Playbook: A Step-by-Step Guide
Pre-selling is the ultimate customer acquisition tactic because it eliminates the risk of building something nobody wants. It’s the strategy famously used by Richard Branson when he started Virgin Atlantic. He didn't buy a fleet of planes; he leased one and pre-sold the tickets. If the tickets didn't sell, he could simply return the plane. He vaporized the risk before he was on the hook for the costs.
Step 1: The Minimum Viable Pitch
Your pitch shouldn't be about features; it should be about the transformation. Use sales copywriting for founders to paint a picture of the user's life after using your product. If you're building a tool for creators, don't talk about the database; talk about the hours they will save on outreach.
Step 2: Collect Leads Early
Build an email list using Beehiiv or ConvertKit before the product is ready. This is your "Anti-MBA" moment. You are building a community of people who are interested in the topic before you ever ask them for money.
Step 3: The 'Founders' Offer
Once you have a list, offer a "Founders' Price" for early adopters. This provides you with the cash flow to build the product and, more importantly, it provides validation. A person's willingness to give you their email is a signal; their willingness to give you their credit card via Stripe is a confirmation.
| Strategy | Manual Hustle (Hot Dog Stand) | Scalable Copywriting (The Hustle) |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Limited to physical foot traffic | Infinite via the internet |
| Effort | High effort per single sale | Low effort (Write once, sell forever) |
| Validation | Instant but slow to scale | Rapid testing via landing pages |
| Cost | Inventory and rent overhead | Minimal software costs |
Flirting with Your Audience: Building Brand Affinity
One of the most overlooked customer acquisition tactics is the art of "flirting" with your audience. This isn't about romance; it's about being the most playful, charming, and human person in the room. In a world of sterile, corporate AI-generated text, personality is your moat.
Being "shalant" means you care enough to make the interaction fun. Whether you're sending a marketing email via Mailchimp or replying to a customer support ticket, inject humor and personality. This builds a "fanbase" rather than just a "customer base." People buy from people they like, and they stay loyal to brands that make them smile.
"Flirt with everyone. Be the most playful, charming person you can be. It's a muscle that makes business—and life—significantly more fun."When you are ready to scale this charm, you can leverage creators who already have this affinity with their audience. Modern platforms like Stormy AI allow you to discover influencers who match your brand's personality, enabling you to source and manage UGC creators who can tell your story more authentically than a generic ad ever could.
Risk vs. Uncertainty: The Founder’s Dilemma
Many people think entrepreneurs are risk-takers. In reality, the best entrepreneurs are risk minimizers. They understand the difference between risk (what you have to lose) and uncertainty (not knowing what will happen). Your goal is to use copywriting for growth to eliminate uncertainty.
By pre-selling, you aren't taking a gamble on whether a product will work; you are running an experiment to see if the market wants it. If the copy doesn't convert, you don't build the product. You simply pivot to the next idea. This process of elimination is how you eventually find a "slam dunk" project.
As you grow, you'll need to manage these relationships and campaigns. Using an AI-powered platform like Stormy AI can help you vet creators and manage outreach at scale, ensuring that your pre-sell message reaches the right ears without you having to manually email every single person.
Conclusion: The 10-Year Arc
Success in business often takes a decade of "doing dumb stuff" before you find the one thing that works. But if you focus on the right money-making skills—specifically sales copywriting for founders—you drastically shorten that curve. You stop guessing and start validating.
The playbook is simple: find where people are already looking for help, write a compelling pitch that solves their problem, and ask for the sale before you build the solution. Stay scrappy, stay "shalant," and remember that the internet is just a giant machine that rewards great writing. Start your pre-selling strategy today, and build the brand the world is actually waiting for.