First customer.

You find ten people in an industry, you ask them what sorts of problems they have, or whether and for what they're using Microsoft Excel. If four or five (or better yet all of 'em) have the same problem, or use Excel for the same purpose, you build software that solves the problem or replaces Excel.

In a vacuum, your ideas are things that you can come up with. Maybe they're problems you have, but those problems might not be problems you're willing to spend money to solve. Often the 'idea' is something you as a founder think will be credible, and you end up with a "sitcom startup" (http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html), something that might come from a writer's room.

I've never built a startup. I worked at a consulting firm that took money in exchange for building the software that some sitcom startups tried and failed to use, and I've worked at two successful venture-backed startups that followed the pattern of finding a problem and trying to solve it.

The thing about Excel is actually a rather clever idea. Thank you, Sir!

It's also been done to death, which is why it's being thrown around like a meme.

The fact that something has been done well repeatedly and created a lot of value is hardly an indictment.

First customer (and their problem). I'd recommend 'Wizard of Oz'ing a solution to their problem for them before even writing code, if possible. Consult for/with them for free. If you successfully solve a problem for someone without code first, writing the code becomes a whole lot more straightforward.

If your product\business needs money to survive, you better have some customers willing to pay on day 1.

No one said it was easy. I was hoping this clickbaity post had something novel to say about talking to your users, but it doesn't.

It's a simple advise. No one wrote that it is easy to do. But, I (personally) did not put much of importance to that.

Honestly, that's a totally personal opinion post. It was my thing I though important to share. That's how internet works.

Well.. you're here now. Speak on it. Did you find a user? How? Did that user have a problem your product solved, or did you iterate on the initial product to solve that user's problem?

First of all, I was building my News API because I could not find any good on the web.

We had 650 sign-ups before the launch on newscatcherapi.com

I am still discovering the market.

But yes, we had 200+ beta sign-ups. I talked to them.