Sharing your song with the one friend whose opinion matters is scarier than playing for strangers.

Strangers are safe because nothing is riding on what they think. A friend whose taste you respect can actually change how you see the thing, which is why their silence after the last chord is the worst silence there is. That is also exactly why their opinion is worth having. The people whose judgement you can shrug off are not much use to you.

Play it for them, and say beforehand what you want: a reaction, or one honest note about what is not working. Ask what they remembered an hour later, which tells you more than whether they liked it. Then make the next one.