I mean for early exposure.
If you have the attention of a bunch of developers because you are leading a popular project then they are more likely to check out your new product than if it was just launched by some random company.
If you do a good job impressing them, they will help spread the word.
The early exposure we got was from our audience on our blog, Signal vs. Noise. They were web design shops like us (that's what we did before we morphed into a product company). These were customers that were like us - small shops that needed a better way to collaborate, communicate, and present with their clients.
If you do a good job impressing them, they will help spread the word.