How to find your first 10 customers
Where first customers actually come from, how to reach them one by one without spamming, and how to track every conversation.
Your first ten customers will not come from a launch, an ad or a viral post. They come from conversations you start yourself, one person at a time, with people who already have the problem you solve. This is slow on purpose, because each of those conversations teaches you something that a thousand anonymous visitors cannot.
Where first customers actually come from
People you already talked to
If you ran customer interviews, the people who described the problem most clearly are your first prospects. They know you, they understand the problem and they have already given you their time.
Introductions
Ask everyone you speak to whether they know someone else with the same problem. A message that starts with the name of a mutual contact is much more likely to be read than one from a stranger.
Communities where customers ask for help
Forums, subreddits, Slack and Discord groups, Facebook groups and industry associations are where people describe problems in public. Read before you post. Answer questions properly, and only mention what you are building where the rules allow it and it actually answers the question being asked.
People who complain in public
Someone posting that their current tool is too expensive, or that they wasted a weekend on a task, is telling you they have the problem right now. A short, personal reply or message that refers to what they wrote is reasonable. Copy-pasting the same pitch to everyone who used a keyword is not.
Your own audience
Sharing what you are building, while you build it, gives people a reason to follow along. It is slow at the start and gets more useful over time, so begin early rather than waiting until launch.
Reaching out without spamming
A good first message is short, personal and easy to answer. It says why you are writing to this person in particular, what you are working on in one sentence, and asks one small question.
“Hi Sam, I saw your post about chasing late invoices every month in the freelance designers group. I’m building something that sends the reminders for you, and a few designers are testing it. Would it be useful if I showed you in 15 minutes this week?”
Most messages will not get a reply, and that is normal. Plan for it by contacting more people than you need, and by writing each message for the person reading it. Never buy contact lists, add people to email lists without their consent, or send the same message to hundreds of people.
Turning a conversation into a customer
- Show the result, not the features. If possible, solve their actual case on the call.
- Ask for the payment directly. “Do you want to start this week? It’s $12 a month and you can cancel anytime.”
- Make paying easy. Send the payment link during or right after the call.
- Do the setup for them. For the first customers, importing their data or configuring the product yourself removes the most common reason to delay.
- Follow up once or twice. A short reminder a few days later is helpful. A third and fourth is pressure.
Track every conversation
A spreadsheet is enough. Its job is to stop people from slipping through the cracks and to show you which source actually produces customers.
| Column | What to write |
|---|---|
| Name and company | Who you contacted |
| Source | Interview, introduction, community, public post, your audience |
| First contact | Date and channel |
| Status | Contacted, replied, call booked, trial, paying, said no |
| Next step | One action with a date |
| Notes | Objections and exact phrases they used |
After your first ten customers, look at the source column. Whichever source produced most of them is where to spend the next month, and the objections column is your list of what to fix in the product and the offer.
What comes after ten
Ten paying customers who found you through direct conversations prove that the problem is real and that your offer works. The next step is finding a repeatable way to reach more people like them. Track your progress with the method in what is MRR, and if you are still before the first payment, start from how to get your first MRR.