[al2o3cr]

One gotcha with the Starbucks approach is that it's very dependent on how much the audience for your startup overlaps the audience for Starbucks. This is going to heavily depend on both your startup and your area - asking random people at my local Midwestern coffee shop about a new AP database-as-a-service is not going to go well, but it might at some spots in SF.

One approach I've seen used to counteract that issue is the old "landing page without a product", where you use targeted ads to put your landing page in front of people who might be interested.

There's a second gotcha, common to both approaches: there's a significant leap between "gets excited about the product / signs up for the mailing list" and "actually pays for the thing".

[brudgers]

The story patio11/Mckenzie tells about Appointment Reminder is about half way down the page here (search page for 'chicago'):

https://www.conversionaid.com/podcast/patrick-mckenzie-kalzu...