One of the founders inside Founder OS came to me six months ago with a problem.
He was the go-to expert in his niche. People loved his advice.
But he was trading time for money, every dollar came from a client call, and he was drowning.
He'd been "thinking about" building a digital product for two years.
His challenge was: "I don't know where to start."
Four weeks later, he launched his first digital product, and made thousands in the first few weeks without any ad spend or big team.
Today, I'm breaking down the exact 4-phase system he used:
Phase 1: The 3-DM Rule (How to Find Your Product Idea Without Guessing)
If 3 different people have asked you the same question in the last 60 days, in DMs, in the comments, in your inbox, on a sales call - that question is a product.
Go check your DMs right now.
What question keeps showing up?
For me, one of them was: "How do you consistently post content without burning out?"
Got that question 11 times in one month.
I didn't sit down and ask "Is there a market for this?" I already had the answer.
That became a product. And over the years, a founder movement.
Beyond your DMs, do what I call Talk Time:
Spend 30 minutes with anyone on your sales or support team.
Ask them: "What questions do you hear over and over again?"
Then take it one step further.
Go to Reddit, Quora, or the Facebook groups in your niche.
Search for posts that start with "how do I..." or "has anyone figured out..."
Sort by upvotes. That's your product idea, handed to you by your future customers.
You're looking for what people are already asking for.
Phase 2: Build Your V1 in a Weekend: The MVP Framework
You know what "feature bloat" is?
It's when you spend 6 months building a course platform, a community, a mobile app… and then realize nobody wants to pay for it.
Think of it like buying a $3,000 espresso machine before you've decided if you even like coffee.
Your Version 1 needs to be one thing: a lean, high-impact solution to the specific problem you identified in Phase 1.
Here's my exact setup:
For a course: One Notion page. Clean navigation at the top.
Each module has 3 things:
- A 5-10 minute Loom recording (screen-share from your laptop, no studio needed)
- A short written summary underneath the video
- And one exercise the student completes before moving on
For a template: Build the actual working system in Notion.
Not a "tutorial about how to build it". The real thing, already set up, that someone duplicates into their own workspace and starts using the same day.
Your V1 is not supposed to be the best version.
You improve it after it's live, based on feedback from real paying customers.
Phase 3: The Launch Waterfall (How to Build Heat Before You Open the Cart)
Posting once and hoping for sales is like opening a restaurant, seating yourself at a table, and waiting for customers who don't know you exist to walk in.
It doesn't work.
Here's the system I use. I call it the Launch Waterfall:
First, you need to get people to "raise their hand" before you even mention the product.
Every post ends with one line: "I'm putting together something to help with exactly this. Reply if you want early access."
Count the replies. That number tells you your floor for sales.
Phase 4: Become the "Go-To" for One Word (The Category of One Strategy)
The product is not what makes you money. Positioning is.
Two products can be nearly identical.
One creator is known for something specific, the other isn't.
I want you to think about what word you want to own in your niche.
For me, it was "systems."
For years, I talked about systems.
- Systems for content
- Systems for teams
- Systems for founders
Everything connected back to that one word.
When I launched my first course, I was selling to people who already associated my name with that word.
Write down 3 words that describe what you help people with.
Then ask yourself: “which one do I want to be the best in the world at?”
Build everything around it.
Find the demand, then build the supply.
It looks like this:
- Validate: find the 3-DM question.
- Build lean: Notion + Loom, done in a weekend.
- Launch with heat: pre-sell before you open the cart.
- Position: own one word.
You know the hardest part of all of this?
Positioning requires more than a framework.
It’s exactly what we help our founders with in Founder OS Velocity.
In fact, we want to make it so easy, that we do most of the work FOR you.
This isn’t AI slop or copying templates.
We’ll create you 37 brand assets. Hand-built by our team from your voice.
‘Your stories with your taste.
Your brand, but with a machine behind it.
Replaces 10 hrs/week of content work and 2 team members.
15 spots/month only → Apply here: https://founderos.com/apply
