# Build the fair before you invite the crowd

- Category: distribution
- Author: Andrei Statescu (https://indie.md/people/andrei-statescu/)
- Source: https://indie.md/journeys/andrei-naramine/
- Canonical URL: https://indie.md/advice/build-the-fair-before-the-crowd/

Andrei's launch sequence inverts the usual order: first a gamified Discord, characters acting as masters of ceremonies, a Sparkles gift for joining funded by Modal's 30 dollars of monthly free credits, challenges and events on a calendar, and only then Reddit promotion, with ads as a distant maybe. The logic is that acquisition without retention infrastructure is a leaky bucket: a launch spike that lands on a product with no community evaporates, while the same spike landing in a running fair leaves behind a nucleus of evangelists who feel like early citizens. The fair also costs almost nothing, free credits, performed characters, a founder doing voices, which fits a pre-revenue budget. Before spending on reach, build the place where arrivals stay, give the first ones a gift and a role, and let the community be running, warm, and slightly theatrical before the first stranger walks in.