Ask HN: How do you promote a new platform and reach critical mass?

One thing I’ve noticed building things is that tools and platforms grow very differently.

Tools can start with just a few people because they solve a specific problem. Platforms are harder because they need activity from both sides before they’re useful.

What I’ve seen work is starting with something that behaves more like a tool first, even if the long-term goal is a platform. If a small group gets value right away, they create the first bit of activity that makes the platform useful later.

I ran into this while building a product recently — feature requests coming from email, support chats, random messages, etc. It got messy fast, so I ended up building a simple system to collect feedback and share a roadmap.

Curious how other people here have dealt with the early chicken-and-egg phase.