# Earlyvangelist Identification

## Purpose
Find and recruit your ideal early customers—the people who will buy your unfinished product, give honest feedback, and become passionate advocates.

## When to Use
- Starting customer discovery and need to find who to talk to
- Have a product idea but don't know who the first customers should be
- Struggling to get traction with "average" customers
- Need reference customers before the product is fully ready
- Want to build a waiting list or beta program

## Process

### 1. Understand the Five Characteristics

True earlyvangelists have ALL FIVE characteristics:

1. **Have a problem** - They're actively aware of the pain you're solving
   - Not theoretical pain—they experience it regularly
   - It affects their work, life, or business

2. **Know they have a problem** - They're not in denial
   - They can articulate the problem without prompting
   - They've thought about why it matters

3. **Have been actively looking for a solution** - Already searched
   - They've Googled, asked peers, explored options
   - They know what's available and why it doesn't work

4. **Have cobbled together a solution** - Built workarounds
   - Spreadsheets, manual processes, duct-tape solutions
   - Hiring people to do what software could do
   - Combining multiple tools in awkward ways

5. **Have or can acquire budget** - Willing and able to pay
   - Discretionary budget they control
   - Can make purchasing decisions (or influence them strongly)
   - Motivated enough to find money even if budget is tight

### 2. Disqualify Non-Earlyvangelists

**Missing characteristic 1 or 2:** They don't feel the pain
- Dangerous because they'll give positive feedback without buying
- "Sounds cool" ≠ "I'll pay for this"

**Missing characteristic 3:** They haven't looked for solutions
- If they haven't searched, they won't search for you either
- Signals the problem isn't important enough to act on

**Missing characteristic 4:** No workarounds means no urgency
- Workarounds prove they care enough to invest effort
- No workaround = problem isn't severe enough

**Missing characteristic 5:** No budget = no sale
- Even the most enthusiastic user isn't an earlyvangelist without budget
- Verify they can actually spend money, not just that they would

### 3. Find Earlyvangelist Candidates

**Direct signals (strong):**
- People who have built their own solution to the problem
- People complaining about the problem on forums, social media, in groups
- People who have tried and abandoned competitor products
- People actively posting job listings to hire someone to solve the problem

**Indirect signals (moderate):**
- People in roles/industries where the problem is common
- People who have bought adjacent solutions
- People who follow thought leaders talking about the problem
- People attending conferences about the problem space

**Where to look:**
- Industry-specific forums and communities
- LinkedIn groups and discussions
- Subreddits where target customers gather
- Slack/Discord communities for the industry
- Conference attendee lists
- Comment sections on relevant blog posts
- Twitter conversations using problem-related keywords

### 4. Qualifying Questions

When talking to potential earlyvangelists, verify each characteristic:

**Testing for characteristic 1 (Have the problem):**
- "Walk me through the last time you dealt with [problem]"
- "How often does this come up?"
- Listen for: Specificity, recency, emotional weight

**Testing for characteristic 2 (Know they have it):**
- "What's the impact when this happens?"
- "How much does this cost you in time/money?"
- Listen for: Clear articulation, quantification

**Testing for characteristic 3 (Actively looking):**
- "What have you tried to solve this?"
- "What did you find when you looked for solutions?"
- Listen for: Names of competitors tried, research done

**Testing for characteristic 4 (Cobbled together solution):**
- "How do you handle this today?"
- "Can you show me your current process/tools?"
- Listen for: Workarounds, manual steps, multiple tools

**Testing for characteristic 5 (Have budget):**
- "Who would make the decision to buy something like this?"
- "What are you currently spending on this problem?"
- "If something solved this, what would it be worth?"
- Listen for: Budget authority, current spend, willingness to pay

### 5. Score and Prioritize

Rate each potential earlyvangelist on the five characteristics:

| Candidate | Problem | Aware | Searching | Workaround | Budget | Total |
|-----------|---------|-------|-----------|------------|--------|-------|
| Person A  | ✓       | ✓     | ✓         | ✓          | ✓      | 5/5   |
| Person B  | ✓       | ✓     | ✓         | ✗          | ✓      | 4/5   |
| Person C  | ✓       | ✗     | ✗         | ✗          | ✓      | 2/5   |

**Focus on 5/5 scores first.** These are true earlyvangelists.
**4/5 may become earlyvangelists** with education.
**3/5 or below are unlikely** to buy early.

### 6. Synthesis

- Have you found at least 5-10 true earlyvangelists?
- What patterns do you see among them? (Job titles, industries, situations)
- Where do these earlyvangelists gather? (For scaling acquisition)
- What language do they use to describe the problem?
- What would make them champion your product internally?

## Example

**Idea**: "AI scheduling assistant for busy executives"

### Earlyvangelist Search

**Where we looked:**
- Executive assistant communities on LinkedIn
- Productivity subreddits (r/productivity, r/getdisciplined)
- Comments on Calendly competitor blog posts
- Posts complaining about scheduling on Twitter/X

### Candidate Analysis

**Candidate A: VP of Sales, B2B SaaS company**
1. ✓ Has problem: "I spend 2 hours a day on scheduling"
2. ✓ Knows it: "It's destroying my selling time"
3. ✓ Actively looking: "I've tried Calendly, SavvyCal, Reclaim"
4. ✓ Workaround: "My SDR manages my calendar manually"
5. ✓ Budget: "I pay the SDR $60K—would gladly pay $500/mo to automate"

**Score: 5/5 - TRUE EARLYVANGELIST**

**Candidate B: Solo consultant**
1. ✓ Has problem: "Scheduling is annoying"
2. ✗ Knows it: "It's not that big a deal though"
3. ✗ Actively looking: Never searched for solutions
4. ✗ Workaround: "I just email back and forth"
5. ✓ Budget: Could pay, but price-sensitive

**Score: 2/5 - NOT AN EARLYVANGELIST**

**Candidate C: Executive at enterprise company**
1. ✓ Has problem: "My EA is overwhelmed"
2. ✓ Knows it: "We need better tools"
3. ✓ Actively looking: "We evaluated Clockwise"
4. ✓ Workaround: "Two EAs coordinate for 8 executives"
5. ✗ Budget: "IT would need to approve; takes 6 months"

**Score: 4/5 - POTENTIAL, but budget friction**

### Earlyvangelist Profile

**Our ideal earlyvangelist:**
- VP/Director level at B2B company (50-500 employees)
- Has already tried at least one scheduling tool
- Currently has admin support handling scheduling
- Has budget authority or direct expense approval
- Values time at $500+/hour

**Where to find more:**
- LinkedIn: VP titles + "calendar chaos" mentions
- SaaS sales communities
- YC founder networks (time-pressed, budget available)
- Executive coaching program alumni

**Insight:** The best earlyvangelists are executives who already pay for partial solutions (EAs, existing tools). They've validated the problem with their wallet and are frustrated enough to try something new.
