Getting the initial excitement is somewhat straightforward: post to HN, reddit, PH, FB, Google+ and hope it gets noticed.<p>After that comes the trough of sorrow. We don't hear much about how people overcome the trough of sorrow and go on to grow their userbase.<p>If you have a successful startup or have seen people build one, how did you/they overcome this?
Its about sticking to your goals and figuring out how to make them happen. Losing weight is fun when you lose the first ten pounds. But boring as hell when you have reached your goal and are maintaining your weight at a healthy level.<p>Stop chasing the excitement because businesses are generally boring. Find excitement somewhere else in your life.
I personally think it's about setting the right expectations. Your short term goal from posting should be to gather initial feedback. Not to get patted on the back. And don't set your hope too high at first; chances are your project (it isn't a startup until you have users) still needs lots of work before you break through market barriers.<p>I think the trough is more mentally manageable this way.
For me, having a cofounder really helped.<p>Having someone there to pick you up when things aren't going as expected was great. Especially when it seems no one else understands/cares what you're doing.