Bonus Episode: Building Products Around Real Customer Needs with Filipe Castro Matos

Filipe Castro Matos is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Altar.io, where he helps founders go from idea to MVP with clarity and speed. With over a decade of experience across B2C and B2B startups—including an early exit, viral growth experiments, and advising dozens of founders—Filipe specializes in helping teams find their first customers and build Go-to-Market strategies that actually work.

His work today centers on solving one of the biggest problems in early-stage startups: the gap between building and growing. He's quietly building something new to bridge that gap.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• [00:00] Intro
• [01:19] Learning ecommerce by evolving with companies
• [02:50] Avoiding guesswork through real user engagement
• [04:57] Avoiding costly guesses in early channels
• [07:24] Finding people who match your avatar
• [08:23] Returning to basics for direction clarity
• [08:51] Distinguishing buyers from friendly critics
• [11:29] Starting small when validating ideas
• [14:36] Simplifying business ideas through existing tools
• [15:29] Stay updated with new episodes
• [15:40] Capturing insights for go-to-market
• [17:36] Separating problem discovery from solutions
• [19:55] Going where the market is active
• [21:10] Introducing payments only after solutions
• [22:24] Digesting conversations into ICP
• [23:17] Pulling branding assets from real conversations
• [24:56] Testing organically before paid ads
• [27:04] Building a brand as key differentiator

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Digital products for entrepreneurs and business leaders: altar.io/us/
• Follow Filipe Castro Matos linkedin.com/in/filipecastromatos

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