As a technical founder, I’m struggling with the urge to automate everything on Day 1. I’m doing the work manually for my first 3 users but feel friction about whether I should automate before fully understanding the customer's emotional pain point. I want to know if focusing on manual processes is a valid approach for early-stage validation.
I’m an engineer/data analyst currently working on a Micro-SaaS. I’m following the YC advice of "Do things that don't scale," but I’m finding a weird friction point: **Automating is my default language.** I’ve identified a high-intent pain point in **\[Niche, e.g., Logistics/Data Compliance\]**. Instead of building the full SaaS, I’ve been doing the work "manually" for my first 3 users. However, "manually" for me means I’ve already written a set of Python scripts and n8n workflows that handle 90% of the work in the background. **My Dilemma:** Am I cheating the "Validation" phase by automating the service before I’ve fully understood the customer's emotional pain point? Or is "Automation as a Service" a valid way to find Product-Market Fit in 2026? **I’d love to hear from YC alumni:** In the early days, did you focus on the "Human-in-the-loop" to learn the edge cases, or did you build the "Logic Engine" first and iterate on the feedback?