"Build an audience first" is great advice when selling info products. Much less so when launching a SaaS.

An audience is always a leg up. But if you don't have one today, I seriously question investing the effort of building one if you're going after SaaS.

Out of nearly 1600 applicants to @tinyseedfund we chose 23 exceptional companies to fund. Of those 23, one (maybe two if you stretch) built an audience before launching their SaaS.

Audience helps, but so much less in SaaS. I've been beating this drum since 2012.

Most of the time "audience first" advice comes from someone who is in the info product space.

There are a few obvious exceptions of audience-first SaaS. MeetEdgar, Leadpages, and WebinarNinja come to mind. All 3 founded by info product folks.