Pre-Launch with Friends

I shared PresenceOS with a few close friends before launch, and one of them literally replied, "Bro, what shit did you build? This makes no sense." 😭

At first, I thought I was finally ready to launch my MVP publicly. But then I realized something: after testing your own product again and again, you stop seeing the problems. Everything starts feeling normal because you built it.

So instead of launching directly, I decided to share it with friends first.

That decision turned into chaos.

Some people replied with, "Bro, this is crazy. What an idea." Others were completely confused. Some gave funny reactions, some roasted the product, and some honestly didn't understand what I was trying to build at all.

That's when I realized I made a mistake.

I was sharing with close friends, but not necessarily the right people for product feedback.

Round 2: a better list

So I made a list of around 20 people: founders, developers, designers, cybersecurity people, product managers, aspiring entrepreneurs, and a few smart friends who I knew would be brutally honest.

I started with 10 of them.

And this time, the feedback was actually incredible.

Some people sent screenshots. Some recorded videos explaining bugs and confusing flows. One friend literally tested every screen and listed issues one by one.

Ashutosh pointed out onboarding UI problems. Himshika found a bug where intent matches were disappearing on refresh. Bharath gave feedback about broken match notification emails and missing contact info after accepting a connection.

One line from a friend genuinely stayed in my head:

"Your idea is interesting, but if users get confused in the first 30 seconds, they'll leave before they understand it."

That hit hard.

What changed

The funny part is, these people are all super busy, so feedback takes time. Some still haven't even created accounts yet. But every time someone reports an issue, I fix it within 24 hours and message them back saying it's updated.

And honestly, seeing the product slowly become more polished day by day feels really good.

I know I lost almost a full week doing this instead of "launching fast," but I think it was the right decision. I'd rather launch something tested and broken by real people than something nobody has touched.

Next Monday

Next Monday, I'm going to share PresenceOS publicly for the first time.

I'm not fully ready. I don't think anyone ever is.

But I'd rather launch a product that 10 friends already helped me break and rebuild than one nobody has tested.