I ran into the same “friends are too nice / surveys are too vague” problem and what helped was testing my landing page copy with people who don’t know me at all. I’ve been using TractionWay to throw up a few headline/message variations and get 4–5 brutally honest takes back in a few hours, plus they flag folks who’d actually want to hear more so I’m not just collecting opinions in a vacuum.
Hey HN, founder here. Built this after two startups that failed because nobody wanted what I built.
The problem: I'd spend months building, show it to friends who'd say "cool idea," then launch to zero signups.
TractionWay polls 30 early adopters on your pitch in 24 hours. You get:
- Vote breakdown (which message/idea wins)
- Written feedback explaining why
- Emails of people who opt-in saying "I'd try this"
It's faster than interviews and more honest than asking friends.