How to get your first customers [video]
ycombinator.com85 points by aurenvale 2 days ago
85 points by aurenvale 2 days ago
There is related post from a year ago. 354 comments. Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43970837
As a first time founder, I'm making my first product right now, and this video was perfect timing!
I like the advice that the first three customers almost always come from personal network, and then 4-10 will come from warm network, and through techniques that don't scale.
It was kind of spot on, as I do have my first pledged customer after showing them the proof of concept demo. They keep asking when it's going to be ready.
And my second target was the person who runs the co-working space I used to be at. Which are lining up with the claim that the first three will be in my personal network!
Also, TIL about Startup School, and there's a whole bunch of videos to absorb and I subscribed to their YouTube channel!
Good timing for me too. I'm currently looking for a first customer with whom I'd possibly shape the product a bit. The development phase was fun, now comes the hard part. Additionally I'm working on a security related product (digital artifact authenticity validation) and I feel like security is a hard sell especially in my network as they don't seem to correspond to the product's target (or I'm a poor promoter of the solution....). .
It's not you, security is indeed a hard sell (coming from the other side, as security engineer trying to push for adoption of solutions). There's some products like Wiz that you don't really need to push hard for, but everything else seems like a struggle
Many founders start their customer search with cold email, LinkedIn, and prospecting tools. But the first 10 customers rarely come from a tool. It starts somewhere else: your network, showing up in person, and a willingness to do things that don't scale.
In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner Max Kolysh draws on dozens of YC founder stories to explain how to identify the right buyers, start conversations, and turn them into your first customers.
I guess I am very atypical. My first customer came from Reddit outreach, and also my second, and third and so on. None came from personal network (never really even tried that, maybe i should)
I know its going to stop being so effective at at some point, but so far so good. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
He says to use Reddit in the video! That was one of my takeaway messages.
Yeah, but he says customers 4-10, not the first and the second the third, he says use personal network for that, right?
there was an older yc video where they asked founders where they got their first customer. a lot of people said * cold outreach/sales * personal network * reddit
Obv the videos these are general brushes, I would imagine they put this video in a counter reaction to the many startups thinking they need an expensive product launch video in order to get their first few clients
But as someone who sells Reddit leads, i can tell you first hand that Reddis has gotten more hostile to these kinds of self promotion as of late. Here is a nice write up from one of my competitors: (https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1qg2f5n/im_pivoting_m...)
I guess the YC folks have not caught up yet on this.
"just know people bro"
Imagine 3 states of a potential customer: 1. They have no knowledge of your product/service; 2. They are aware of it and consider it valuable and correctly priced; 3. They actually buy it.
Digital media (email/LinkedIn/Insta/X/etc.) moves people from 1 to 2.
Moving people from 2 to 3 ain't gonna happen with "awareness." You have to get in front of someone and close the sale. There is a lot of stuff in the store that I think is good and fairly priced. But I don't buy the entire store every time I visit. But, if someone in the store shows me one item and gives me a good story, pretty good chance I'm walking out with it. One item out of thousands. Why? Because a human moved me from 2 to 3.
Water doesn't boil at 100° - you have to add a little bit more energy to initiate a phase change. No different.
> ... if someone in the store shows me one item and gives me a good story, pretty good chance I'm walking out with it.
I don't comprehend this. I'm in the store for a purpose. I don't want a sales pitch. I don't need a story. If I need human interaction, I want the facts that I request and nothing more. Even when I have disposable cash, I've likely already decided on The Thing I'm spending it on.
I don't want to be treated like a walking cash vault whose access code is to be guessed so money can be extracted.
If I ever wander into a store without purpose, it would take a genuine human interaction to engage me and convince me to buy anything. When I say "genuine," I mean that the seller/employee/whomever is truly interested in a conversation, isn't trying to steer it into a commissionable sale, and listens to me pontificate aloud my interests in the products available.
> if someone in the store shows me one item and gives me a good story, pretty good chance I'm walking out with it.
This is kind of a tragedy of the commons. If people like you didn't fall for these scammy tactics, the people in the shop wouldn't attempt to use them on the rest of us.
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Why the first 10? These tips might work for the first 20, 30 or even 50 customers, depending on how much time/money they require.