Pre-selling

Getting customers to pay or commit before the product is built.

Also known as: pre-selling, presales, selling before building

Pre-selling asks for money or binding commitment before the product exists: deposits, annual prepayment for lifetime deals, signed pilot agreements, letters of intent. It is the strongest validation available — everything else measures interest, this measures demand with a price tag.

interest ladder:  click < signup < interview < pilot commitment < money now
                  (each rung costs the customer more, so each proves more)

Pre-sales also fund the build: the classic bootstrapped start is ten customers paying upfront for something delivered in months. And they convert buyers into co-designers — paying customers give the honest feedback free users never will.

The classic mistakes:

Discounting the future away. Lifetime deals and huge early discounts feel like traction but mortgage revenue and anchor prices low. Prefer refundable deposits and pilot fees over permanent giveaways.
Selling what cannot be built. A pre-sale is a promise with a deadline. Sell a scoped, deliverable version — and be explicit about dates, or refunds will teach the lesson.
Counting LOIs as revenue. Non-binding letters measure politeness plus hope. Weight commitments by their cost to break: cash > contracts > letters > words.
Hiding behind “not ready to sell”. Founders polish instead of asking because asking risks hearing no. The no is the data — collect rejections until the offer or the audience changes.

The rule: no significant build without pre-sold evidence. If nobody pays upfront, either the problem, the buyer or the offer is wrong — find out which before writing code.