I keep on Seeing How do I find my first users? so I ran a small experiment last week: took me about 20 hours to do this

I though ok let's say my product is a CRM software that I just developed. then my Goal would be to. Find people who might need a CRM

Method 1: Traditional tools, things like f5bot, apollo, the big names searched “CRM software” filtered companies by size/industry

The Results: big list of “potential” leads no idea if they were actually looking I contacted some of them and didn't get a reply.. most who replied said they weren't interesed

Method 2: Manual intent search (Reddit, forums, etc.). this took the most time

“looking for a CRM” “any CRM recommendations” “need help managing customers”

the Result: fewer results but way more relevant conversations. and they were actively looking for CRM software solutions.. They had different requirements though

The difference: The traditional ones is like hit and miss.. lotta misses The other gives you situations you can jump into.

Not saying one replaces the other, but they serve completely different purposes. Feels like most tools are optimized for scale, not timing. I've built a tool that helped me find the right conversations at the right moment. Sourceleader.comp Let me know your thoughts