We’ll answer this with a story.

Kevin Lee and Kevin Chan quit their jobs to start immi: a healthy instant ramen startup.

But then the pandemic hit. For over a year, they couldn’t ship a single product because of supply-chain issues. This meant not being able to generate any revenue.

During this time, the Kevins had to focus on what they could control: building an audience.

They built their email list from 0 to 35,000 subscribers in 8 months.

The Kevins talked to customers every day, ran Facebook ads to test ideas and pre-sold their product before it was even possible to ship.

So when they finally released their first product over a year later, 40% of sales came directly from their community.

If you want a successful pre-order, start with building an audience first.

If people aren’t interested, that’s a sign that you shouldn’t reach out to investors and go back to the customer discovery process.