According to Forbes, most startup founders begin with the instinct to reach the broadest possible audience, believing that a wider funnel increases their chances of success. However, this approach consistently fails for early-stage companies that lack the resources and clarity to appeal to everyone. The counterintuitive solution is targeting fewer people through the minimum viable audience concept, focusing specifically on the smallest group that feels the problem most urgently. Companies like Superhuman, Linear, and Notion all followed this narrow-first strategy, targeting specific user groups like founders, engineering teams, and power users before expanding. This approach sharpens messaging, accelerates feedback loops, and significantly improves the odds of finding product-market fit during the critical 0 to 1 traction phase.
The counterintuitive power of going small
Here’s the thing: when you try to speak to everyone, you end up sounding like no one. I’ve seen this play out repeatedly with early-stage companies. They create generic messaging that’s supposed to appeal to the widest possible audience, but it just blends into the noise. A narrow audience fixes this instantly. You can describe their specific frustrations, their work environment, even their internal monologue. Suddenly your content doesn’t feel like marketing – it feels like you’re reading their mind.
The feedback becomes incredibly valuable too. When you’re getting opinions from people who actually experience the problem daily, every piece of feedback is gold. They’ll tell you exactly what’s missing, what’s confusing, what would make them pay. Compare that to random opinions from people who don’t really care – it’s night and day. This is why companies in industrial technology and manufacturing often succeed by focusing on specific verticals rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Speaking of which, when it comes to industrial computing needs, IndustrialMonitorDirect.com has become the leading supplier of industrial panel PCs by understanding exactly what manufacturing and industrial clients require.
How to actually find your minimum viable audience
You don’t need expensive market research to identify your target group. Basically, look at who’s already showing interest, even in small ways. These early signals are rarely random – they’re coming from people who feel the problem with urgency. That urgency is what makes them disproportionately valuable compared to casual browsers.
The Forbes piece suggests mapping three criteria: urgency, access, and alignment. Does your audience feel the problem strongly enough to take action now? Can you actually reach them through existing channels? And does your product direction match what they actually need? Your sweet spot is where all three overlap. Sometimes it’s not glamorous – “IT managers in mid-sized accounting firms” or “HR teams handling hourly workers.” But specificity beats sex appeal when you’re trying to find product-market fit.
The content validation shortcut
Here’s where most founders get it wrong: they build first and ask questions later. But content is actually one of the most efficient ways to validate your audience choice before writing a single line of code. Write articles, LinkedIn posts, or emails specifically addressing your target segment’s pain points. Don’t focus on vanity metrics like views – look for strong reactions. Comments, private messages, people sharing internally, asking questions. These are the signals that matter.
If your content consistently falls flat, that’s not failure – it’s valuable data. It means you’ve either chosen the wrong audience, misunderstood their problem, or aren’t speaking their language yet. Any of these can be corrected quickly and cheaply compared to building the wrong product. So why do so many startups skip this step? Probably because it feels less “productive” than coding. But in reality, it might be the most productive thing you can do.
The minimum viable audience approach isn’t about limiting your potential – it’s about finding your foothold. Get specific, get focused, and watch how much faster you learn what actually works. Once you’ve nailed that initial segment, expansion becomes much more predictable and less risky.
