“don't go into business being like 'I'm going to buy Facebook ads and sell it to some stranger in Arkansas'... it's got to be someone you know”

Validate Your Idea by Selling to Your Personal Network First

Before spending a dollar on ads, Ian sold his first three contracts at a steep discount purely to friends and connections. He used those relationships as a live test of market demand, reasoning that if someone who trusts you won't pay for it, a stranger never will. This 'sell to people you know first' filter is a low-cost way to validate product-market fit before scaling acquisition.