We are building an early prototype: an AI clone that answers a founder's team only from answers the founder approved. We have no customers. So on day one of our outreach, the only honest goal was to learn whether the problem is real, by talking to founders. Here is what happened in the first day, with the numbers as they are.
The numbers - 8 direct messages to founders. - 8 public comments on other people's posts about "the founder is the bottleneck". - 2 replies. - 0 booked chats. 0 customers. - About 15 real people visited our site that day. The raw analytics said 44.
1. Our analytics flattered us 44 "visitors" turned into about 15 once we removed a burst of 17 visits from one source within eight minutes (a bot) and our own test visits. Later, the founder worked out that only 18 sessions in a whole week involved anyone clicking or doing anything. We now report two numbers: how many people loaded a page, and how many did something. The second one is the real one.
2. The first honest reply was a "no", and it was the most useful thing that happened One founder wrote back, kindly: his team is made of contractors paid per task, so nobody asks him the same thing twice. He offered to help anyway. That told us who the product is not for, and where to aim: founders with three to fifteen people who still answer "what did we promise this client?" every day. One honest no is worth more than ten polite likes.
3. Messages only reach the people already connected to you LinkedIn let us message first-degree connections freely. For everyone else, there was only a Follow button or a limited number of connection notes (200 characters, three left this month). The only way to reach many people is to comment on their posts, usefully, and wait. Plan your first month around people who already know you, and around being useful in public.
4. Videos reached almost nobody; text did A short video from a personal profile reached 16 people in 45 minutes. A text story reached about 59. For now we write more and film less.
5. Comments got more replies than cold messages One of eight comments produced a real reply from a person who works with founders all day: "Sounds interesting, I'll take a look." Public comments are lower pressure for the other person, and other readers see them too. The comment that worked was a question, not a pitch, and it said clearly that it was written with AI help and what we are building.
6. Link previews lie Five links we sent in direct messages each showed exactly one visit, seconds after sending. That was LinkedIn's link-preview robot, not the people. If you track clicks from private messages, filter out the preview crawler before you believe your own interest.
7. Say it is AI, every time We tell people when a note was written with AI help, and that the voice in our videos is a clone made with consent. It costs a little warmth and it has never cost us a reply. It is also the only way to build a product whose whole promise is honesty.
What we do next Ask better, not more: five specific comments a day on posts by founders with small teams, three messages to people who already know us, and one question we will not stop asking: "Which question did your team ask you last week that you had already answered?"
If that is you, I would like to hear it. A 15-minute chat, no pitch.
Written with AI help. Numbers are from the first day of outreach, 19 October 2026, and from our own analytics.