Originally published at axelfreeman.com
Code is worthless now. Everyone can code. Your neighbor codes. Your friends code. The real competition has moved to marketing — and "marketing" is a garbage word that means everything and nothing. Like "computer." This article is me untangling that mess. You'll learn why being clear beats being clever, how to legally steal competitor customers, and why $300 is all you need to validate any idea. No marketing team. No bullshit.
The Code Is Dead. Long Live Marketing.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: writing code used to be a superpower. It's not anymore. Every person in your network can build something now. AI makes it trivial. Your competitive advantage can't be "I built a product" — everyone has that.
The next level of competition is marketing. And I don't mean "marketing" the way people use it as a catch-all for "stuff that makes people buy things." That's the problem. "Marketing" is like the word "computer" — it's so broad it's become meaningless.
If you're a solo developer (or a tiny team) reading this, your goal is simple: get your first users. Not build a marketing empire. Not hire a CMO. Just find people who will pay for what you built.
The Goal: We're not building a marketing machine for a century. We're showing up to the market with determination and audacity, stealing a few customers from competitors, and seeing what happens. That's it.
Eyes and Ears: The Only Channels That Matter
Let's shrink the problem immediately. You're behind a screen. Your customer is behind a screen. What human senses can you actually reach?
Two. Just two. Sight and hearing. Eyes and ears.
- Sight (eyes): Text, images, video, UI, design, ads
- Hearing (ears): Audio, podcasts, voice, music, video soundtracks
Every platform ever built works through exactly these two channels. Text is the cheapest, simplest, and most universal format. Text becomes voiceover scripts. Scripts become video. Everything starts with text.
Don't Segment When You Have Zero Users
There's a million frameworks about audience segmentation. But when you have zero users, segmentation is poison. The source of your "persona" isn't reality — it's someone else's opinion recycled from the internet.
On day one, the only source of truth is market response. Traffic comes in. People interact. Some convert. Some don't. That data is real. Everything else is guessing.
The Segmentation Trap: When you narrow your message to "grandmas in Odessa," 90% of people who could have converted scroll past you. Write broad. Write clear. Let the market tell you who your customers are through actual data.
The Math of "Where": Count the People Buying Right Now
"Where do I find users?" starts with the word where. It's a location question. And the location is: wherever people are currently making the decision to buy something like your product.
Your first job: estimate how many people today made the decision to buy a product like yours — somewhere else. You don't need precision. You need a ballpark. Use AI for desk research.
These people — the ones making a buying decision right now — are your first base. They could have come to you. They didn't. Let's fix that.
Steal Your Competitors' Customers (Legally)
Here's the uncomfortable strategy that works: steal customers from competitors.
People are inattentive. They glance at search results. They misread brand names. Bid on competitor brand keywords in search ads. Show up when someone types your competitor's name into Google.
Is this legal? Yes. Millions of court cases across jurisdictions have established that bidding on competitor trademarks is fair game. Check your local regulations.
Why Stolen Customers Don't Lie: A customer who clicked your ad expecting a competitor already came to pay. If they don't convert — that's real data. Your product has a problem. Not your marketing.
Being Clear: The Only Marketing Skill That Actually Matters
First, accept this: people are selfish. Every second they think about themselves. Your marketing has to work with this.
Your message needs to answer exactly three questions, immediately:
- What service do you provide?
- What problem does it solve?
- What does the person get by coming to you?
Vocabulary: use the basic dictionary. Cambridge Dictionary level. Agents can do this — just tell them "write at B1 vocabulary level."
Tone of Voice: Be Beige
Your tone of voice is not a creative decision. It's a research task. Scan 10-20 competitors. Ask an AI to analyze their average tone. That's your tone. It'll be beige. Boring. But native to the market.
Uniqueness Is a Trap
There's a fantasy that being "unique" and "disruptive" wins on launch. It doesn't. Uniqueness on day one means a 99% failure rate.
Be approximately average in presentation. Win on execution.
Buy Traffic: $300 Validates Any Idea
The simplest, fastest method: buy traffic.
Budget formula:
- Ask an AI: "What's the average cost per lead in [your market]?"
- Take the upper estimate. You're new. Competitors outbid you.
- Multiply by 10. That's your validation budget.
This number is almost never more than $300. Any idea. Any market.
Do It Yourself. With AI Agents. For validation, AI agents handle it. Create ads. Write copy. Analyze results. All solo.
Competition Is Always There
You are not alone. Thousands of people worldwide are testing your market right now. There's no such thing as "no competition."
But being small means you can spy. Competitors' landing pages, ads, pricing — all public. Use AI to analyze them.
The Bottom Line
Marketing for a solo developer isn't about building a brand. It's about survival through clarity and audacity.
Checklist:
- Estimate your market. How many people are buying today?
- Be clear. Basic vocabulary. Three questions. Beige tone.
- Don't segment. Zero users = zero data. Write broad.
- Buy competitor traffic. Bid on their keywords. It's legal.
- Spend $300. Validate.
- Do it yourself. AI agents are your marketing team.
Most startups die from overthinking and underspending. You now know enough to do neither.
Need help? Telegram: @axelfreeman. One neural network search problem solved for free.
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