We live in a world now where building product is easier than it’s ever been. With AI you can build something production ready in days, maybe weeks. But actually getting those first customers is still really difficult. It always has been, and I’d argue it’s harder now, because you’re not competing with two or three people in your space anymore, you’re competing with dozens.
This is the question I get from founders more than any other. “Tell me, David, how did you find your first customers”. I’ve done this a few times now, starting more than 20 years ago at a reverse calling card company, then at Vocalocity building a cloud PBX product, then at BetterCloud selling to Google Workspace admins.
I did crazy stuff to get those first customers. I held a pizza party for international students at Georgia State. I went to the taxi stand at the Atlanta airport and handed out fliers. I went to every Google event I could find and walked up to admins with no shame, hey, I built this for Google admins, can we talk. I asked my best friend from college if his tutoring business would use our phone service. I asked my uncle to buy the phone system for his office. Literally no shame. That first set of customers, you need to approach it that way.
If you’re the founder, you are in charge of sales, especially those first ten customers, and there is no other way around it. You cannot outsource this. I’ve seen people try and it doesn’t work. It’s going to be uncomfortable, it’s going to feel desperate, but you have to do it.
So here are six ways, tactical ways, to go get those first ten customers.
Reconnect with former employers and coworkers
This is the first way, and it works for almost everyone I talk to. Reach out to people who used to work with you and say, hey, we used to work together, you had this problem, I experienced it firsthand with you, and now I’ve built something to solve it. Someone who had a relationship with you at that company is going to want to help.
I saw this over and over at BetterCloud. People left to start their own companies, and people on our team wanted to give them a chance, wanted to be an early customer, because they knew that person understood the problem.
Reaching out to those people is essentially asking for a favor. You know me, you trust me, please give this a shot.
Use your investor network
The second is your investor network, even if you don’t have investors yet, even if it’s just angel investors or people you’ve talked to.
Reach out and make it easy for them to help you find your ideal customer profile. You may not know exactly who that is yet, it might be day one or day fifty of your company, but be clear about who you think it is and why. Give them a specific list of people they’re connected with, on LinkedIn or in their portfolio. Give them the actual email to send.
Most investors tell founders let me know if I can help, and most founders never take them up on it because it feels uncomfortable to ask. If they think what you’re building is interesting, they will make that introduction, because for them it’s essentially doing diligence on you. They get to learn what that company thinks of you and the product.
Show up in person
Conferences, meetups, dinners, trade shows, anywhere your buyers are. It’s exhausting, I’ll be honest, I don’t love flying all over and walking up to people I don’t know. But in person makes a massive difference. I worked with a company whose first ten customers all came from trade shows.
The founder didn’t have a booth, wasn’t doing any presentation, he just got a badge and walked around and got in front of buyers he couldn’t reach over email or LinkedIn. I did this too in the early days, going to every Google Apps meetup, and eventually we started hosting them ourselves out of our small office, just so we had a reason to be in the room with these people.
Share what you’re building on social media
Put it on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Substack, wherever you use.
Talk about what you’re building and why. In the beginning almost nobody is going to engage, they’re not going to comment or give you a like, but they’re going to see it, and it starts to build a presence for you. Remember we’re only trying to get to ten customers here, this doesn’t need to scale to a hundred.
Post once a day for three weeks about what you’re building and I’d guess you get at least one customer out of it. It feels cringey, especially if you’re more of an operator than someone who likes putting themselves out there, but this is the game you have to play.
Tell your friends and family
This seems obvious but people skip it, share what you’re building with your friends and family.
These are the people closest to you and they want to help you succeed, even if they don’t fully understand your industry or your product. What I did was put together one email, everyone on BCC, here’s what I’m doing, here’s how you can help, here’s what I’m looking for.
I got a customer out of that email, and I also got an important hire out of it. You don’t know who knows who, and people will forward it around, especially if you ask them to.
Do cold outreach, but make it authentic
It’s hard, especially now with all the AI slop and automation out there, it’s genuinely difficult to break through.
The way you break through is by reaching out to your buyer and authentically telling them why you’re reaching out, and it’s not that you want to sell them something, it’s that you want their feedback. If you’re building for growth marketers, reach out to growth marketers and say, I’m a founder, I’ve dedicated my career to making people like you more successful, I’d love fifteen or twenty minutes to show you what I’m working on. When I get emails like that, ones that explicitly say I’m not trying to sell you something, I take probably nine out of ten of those meetings.
You have to be authentic on the call, show them what you’re building, ask for feedback, listen to it, and it might take two, three, four conversations before that person becomes a customer. Most people who haven’t been on the founder journey themselves want to be helpful when you treat them like the expert and ask for their advice.
None of this scales, and that’s the point
All six of these things don’t scale, especially not with you doing them yourself, and that’s actually fine, that’s the point. This is how you go from a standing start to building real momentum with your first set of customers. All of it assumes the product you’re building is actually a painkiller and not a vitamin, that people really need this, especially today when people feel like they can just build it themselves or teach an agent to do it. But if you have something people really want, these six things will get you your first ten customers.
It’ll be exhausting, it’ll be uncomfortable, it’ll be hard, but it will get you there, and it gets easier after that. Once you have a set of customers you can point to, for investors, for other customers, for your team, you build confidence you didn’t have at zero. It’s a lot easier to tell the eleventh customer, hey, I already have ten people using this and here’s what they’re saying, than it is to start from nothing.
That first ten is really, really hard, but I hope this helps you find your way through it.
Ways to Tune In:
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Spotify:
Apple Podcasts:
Chapters
00:00 - Trailer
00:44 - Why Finding Your First Customers Is Harder Than Ever
05:20 - Tactic 1: Reconnect with Former Employers & Coworkers
06:28 - Tactic 2: Tap Into Your Investor Network
08:14 - Tactic 3: Show Up in Person (Trade Shows & Meetups)
09:42 - Tactic 4: Build in Public on Social Media
11:02 - Tactic 5: Tell Your Friends and Family
12:02 - Tactic 6: Cold Outreach Done Right
13:53 - Why Doing Things That Don't Scale Is the Entire Point
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