Building a Community Before or After MVP? Need Your Advice!

I’ve been working on something I’m really excited about, and I could use some advice from this awesome community. 🙌

Here’s the deal:

We’re building a personalized AI-powered fintech app to help kids (ages 8–18) learn real-life financial skills—things like saving, spending wisely, and even investing in stocks or crypto. Think of it as a modern financial coach for kids, but with gamified features like in-game currency, unlockable lessons, and parental controls to keep everything safe and supervised.

The problem we’re solving is simple: Platforms like Greenlight help kids manage money, but they don’t provide personalized insights or teach them how to make smarter financial decisions. Our goal is to fill that gap by combining AI recommendations with fun, engaging tools that kids actually want to use.

But here’s where I’m stuck:

Should we focus on building a community NOW (before our MVP is ready), or wait until the product is live?

On one hand, having a strong community from day one seems like it could make launching the MVP smoother. People would already be invested in the vision, and we’d have early adopters ready to test things out. Plus, communities often drive organic growth way better than traditional marketing.

On the other hand, I don’t want to waste time and energy building a community if we don’t have anything tangible to show yet. Maybe it’s smarter to focus all our resources on finishing the MVP first and then rallying people around it.

What do you guys think?

Here’s what I’m considering:

  • Option 1: Start small and build a tight-knit community now. Share updates, gather feedback, and create buzz around the problem we’re solving.
  • Option 2: Focus 100% on the MVP, launch it, and THEN start building the community around the live product.

I know there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but I’d love to hear your thoughts based on your own experiences. Have you ever tried building a community pre-MVP? Did it work, or was it a distraction?

Also, if you’re a parent or someone who’s passionate about financial literacy for kids, I’d love to hear what challenges you’ve faced when teaching kids about money. It might help us refine our approach!

Thanks in advance for your insights. This community is gold, and I’m genuinely excited to learn from you all. 😊