In today’s competitive startup landscape, waiting to deliver value until your product is ready can be a fatal mistake. The most successful founders know that building relationships and providing genuine value from day one creates the foundation for sustainable growth. But how exactly do you create value when you don’t yet have a product to sell?

The answer lies in taking a relationship-first approach to business development. By focusing on how you can help potential customers solve their problems now, you position yourself as a trusted advisor rather than just another vendor pushing a solution.

Why Creating Value Before Product Launch Matters

Before diving into tactics, let’s understand why this approach is so powerful. When you prioritize giving value before asking for anything in return, you’re practicing what author Adam Grant calls “being a giver” in his book “Give and Take.” Research shows that givers ultimately outperform takers in the long run, especially in relationship-based businesses.

Creating value early accomplishes several critical objectives:

• Builds trust with potential customers before asking them to commit
• Provides real-world insights that help refine your product
• Creates a network of supporters invested in your success
• Establishes credibility in your industry or niche
• Generates goodwill that can convert to sales when you do launch

Ryan Breslow, founder of Bolt and Eco, puts it simply: “The more you help others, the more others will help you.” This philosophy has helped him build multiple billion-dollar companies by focusing first on creating value, then monetizing later.

Seven Powerful Ways to Create Value Without a Product

1. Become a Connector

One of the most valuable things you can do costs nothing but attention and thoughtfulness: connect people who should know each other. When you understand someone’s challenges and know others who might help them solve those problems, making introductions creates immediate value.

Effective connecting requires three steps:

• Listen carefully to understand what someone truly needs
• Think about who in your network might provide that value
• Make a double opt-in introduction (ask both parties for permission first)

As Sam Parr of The Hustle notes, “Introductions are the highest ROI activity for early-stage founders. They cost nothing but can open doors worth millions.”

2. Share Specific Industry Knowledge

Your background and expertise constitute valuable intellectual property. Whether it’s industry trends, competitive intelligence, or specialized knowledge, sharing what you know helps potential customers and partners navigate their challenges.

Consider creating:

• Free reports or white papers on industry trends
• Curated newsletters highlighting important developments
• Educational webinars or workshops on topics related to your expertise
• Short, tactical videos solving common problems in your industry

This approach positioned Gong.io as a thought leader in sales intelligence long before they had significant market share. By publishing valuable sales insights based on their data analysis, they became trusted advisors to the same sales leaders who would later become customers.

3. Offer Free Consulting Sessions

When you’re developing a product, your customer conversations are golden opportunities to provide value. Instead of just extracting information through user interviews, structure these as consulting sessions where you genuinely help solve problems.

Make these sessions valuable by:

• Preparing thoughtful questions that uncover hidden challenges
• Sharing relevant insights from other conversations (while respecting confidentiality)
• Providing immediate tactical suggestions they can implement
• Following up with helpful resources or introductions

This approach creates a powerful reciprocity effect where prospects feel naturally inclined to help you in return – whether through product feedback, introductions to others, or eventually becoming customers.

4. Create Community Spaces

Communities built around shared challenges or interests create tremendous value for participants. By facilitating connections between people facing similar problems, you position yourself at the center of valuable relationships.

Effective community building might include:

• Slack or Discord channels focused on specific topics
• Virtual roundtable discussions for peer learning
• Facilitated mastermind groups for deeper problem-solving
• In-person meetups or events (when possible)

Lenny Rachitsky built a substantial following and business by first creating a community for product managers to share challenges and solutions. The community became so valuable that his newsletter and courses developed a built-in audience of eager customers.

5. Build Free Tools and Resources

Creating simple tools that solve specific problems demonstrates your understanding of customer needs while providing immediate value. These don’t need to be sophisticated products – even simple calculators, templates, or frameworks can be remarkably helpful.

Consider developing:

• ROI calculators related to your industry
• Decision-making frameworks or templates
• Checklists for common processes
• Curated resource directories

HubSpot mastered this approach by creating free website graders and marketing assessment tools long before many users became paying customers. These tools provided value while demonstrating the problems HubSpot’s paid products could solve.

6. Create Educational Content

Educational content that genuinely helps your target audience solve problems positions you as an authority and creates tremendous goodwill. The key is focusing on being truly helpful rather than promotional.

Effective educational content might include:

• Step-by-step guides to solving common challenges
• Case studies showing how others have overcome similar problems
• Expert interviews that provide multiple perspectives
• Explanatory content that simplifies complex topics

Wistia built their video hosting business by first creating the best educational content about video marketing. Their comprehensive guides and tutorials attracted precisely the audience who would later need their product.

7. Facilitate Problem-Solving

Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is simply help people think through their problems more effectively. By asking thoughtful questions and providing structured frameworks, you help others reach better conclusions themselves.

Ways to facilitate problem-solving include:

• Offering structured decision-making frameworks
• Asking probing questions that reveal hidden issues
• Sharing how others have approached similar challenges
• Providing objective outside perspective on internal problems

This approach works because it respects the expertise of your potential customers while adding value through process and perspective – a combination that builds both trust and credibility.

Turning Value Creation into Business Growth

Creating value before you have a product isn’t just good karma – it’s good business. Here’s how this approach translates into tangible growth opportunities:

Building Your Waiting List

When you consistently provide value without asking for anything in return, people naturally want to reciprocate. This creates an ideal environment for building a waiting list of potential customers eager to try your product when it launches.

To effectively convert value recipients to waitlist members:

• Be transparent about what you’re building and your timeline
• Explain how your upcoming product relates to the free value you’ve provided
• Make joining the waitlist a low-friction process
• Continue providing value to waitlist members while they wait

Gathering Critical Feedback

The relationships you build through value creation provide an invaluable source of honest feedback. People who have received genuine help from you are more likely to give thoughtful, constructive input on your developing product.

To maximize the quality of feedback:

• Ask specific questions rather than general opinions
• Present concrete options or prototypes for reaction
• Listen for the problems behind feature requests
• Pay attention to emotional responses alongside logical ones

Creating Early Evangelists

People who receive value from you before you have anything to sell become your most powerful advocates. They tell others about you, defend you against criticism, and enthusiastically support your launch.

To nurture these relationships into evangelism:

• Recognize and appreciate their support publicly
• Give them insider access to your development process
• Ask for their help in specific, manageable ways
• Create opportunities for them to share their expertise through your platform

Putting It Into Practice: A Weekly Value Creation Plan

To implement these principles consistently, consider adopting a structured approach to value creation:

• Monday: Send two thoughtful introductions to people in your network who could benefit from knowing each other
• Tuesday: Share a specific insight or resource with someone facing a challenge you can help with
• Wednesday: Conduct one free consulting session with a potential customer or partner
• Thursday: Create and publish a piece of educational content addressing a common problem
• Friday: Facilitate a community discussion or connection around a shared challenge

This simple weekly practice builds the habit of value creation while generating a steady stream of goodwill, relationships, and insights for your business.

The Counterintuitive Truth About Value-First Business

The most powerful aspect of this approach is that it works precisely because it doesn’t feel like traditional marketing or sales. By genuinely focusing on how you can help others rather than how they can help you, you create the foundation for authentic relationships.

As marketing expert Jay Baer notes, “Help beats hype every time.” When your primary goal is creating value rather than extracting it, you build the trust necessary for sustainable business growth.

“The mistake isn’t focusing too much on creating value before you have a product. The mistake is focusing too much on creating a product before you’ve created value.” – Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot co-founder

By adopting this mindset from day one, you position your startup not just to launch a product, but to enter the market with an existing network of supporters, advocates, and potential customers who already know, like, and trust you – the true foundation of business success.

Start today by asking not “How can I sell what I’m building?” but rather “How can I help the people I hope to serve?” The answers to that question will guide your value creation strategy and set the stage for sustainable growth.

---

Real Stories Behind This Advice

We’ve gathered honest experiences from working professionals to bring you strategies that work in practice, not just theory.

• Read more: Get the full details in the original article
• Join in: See what others are saying and share your thoughts in the Reddit discussion
• Tell your story: Have experience with this? Help others by sharing what worked for you at our Contact Us page

At ModernWorkHacks, it’s practical ideas from real people.