“when you're chasing your first few customers you have very little to show for but if you're known to contribute to an existing Community or known for having left faes of your ambition and curiosity before where people can find them they will be much more willing to listen”

Show up in the target community before you sell to it

Pre-sale credibility is built by leaving a public trail inside the community you eventually want to sell to — comments, replies, side projects, half-finished experiments. When you finally pitch your product, the audience is not deciding whether to trust a stranger; they are deciding whether to support someone they have already watched do the work for months.