50 Founders Share How They Got Their First Customers

Summary

The video script details various entrepreneurs' journeys to secure their first customers. Techniques ranged from cold emails and LinkedIn outreach to leveraging personal networks and friends. Some started with a minimum viable product, while others used social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter to attract attention. The stories highlight the importance of persistence, creativity, and the power of community in finding initial support and validating their business ideas.

Takeaways

• 📧 The first customer was acquired through a well-crafted cold outreach email.
• 🚪 Another customer was acquired by going door-to-door and capitalizing on a chance encounter with the owner.
• 🗨 A voicemail left for a physical therapist led to a call back and a successful pitch, resulting in a customer.
• 🤝 The founders' background and approach resonated with the first customer, leading to a partnership.
• 💡 Initial customer discovery calls helped to refine the product and understand market interest.
• 💻 The first version of the product was developed in just seven days and deployed to the first customer.
• 🔗 LinkedIn was used effectively to connect with potential customers and understand their needs.
• 📈 A mock-up website with a waitlist posted on Reddit attracted significant interest, indicating a strong market fit.
• 🚀 A successful beta launch on Twitter led to a rapid increase in followers, GitHub stars, and website visitors.
• 🌐 Networking and making introductions within the industry helped to secure initial customers.
• 💡 Leveraging personal networks, including friends and family, was a common strategy for acquiring early customers.

Q & A

How did the company initially find their first customer?

The company found their first customer through a combination of cold outreach and going door-to-door, eventually capitalizing on a chance encounter with the owner of a food truck.

What was the method used to secure the first customer after the initial encounter?

The first customer was secured through a voicemail left for a physical therapist, who showed interest and decided to work with the company after hearing their background and intentions.

How did the company validate the interest in their product before having any code?

They conducted customer discovery calls to understand if there was interest in their product and sold a basic version of it to a company for $250 a month, which they developed in seven days.

What was the strategy behind creating a mock-up of the personal finance product?

The company created a mock-up and website with a waitlist to gauge interest and collect potential customers' information, which helped them understand the market need better.

How did the company leverage Reddit to gain traction for their product?

They posted their mock-up and waitlist on a Reddit group, which resulted in nearly a thousand sign-ups within 24 hours, indicating a strong resonance with the target audience.

What was the impact of launching a beta version of the product on Twitter?

The launch on Twitter led to a significant increase in followers, GitHub stars, and unique visitors, effectively attracting a large number of customers to the company.

How did the company acquire their first paying customer?

The first paying customer was acquired through sharing their work on LinkedIn, which led to inbound interest and a growing waitlist from which the customer was sourced.

What networking strategy did the company employ to find potential customers?

The company used networking, leveraging introductions from an advisor to connect with individuals at large AG tech companies.

How did the company plan to approach potential customers in the production industry?

The plan was to visit Los Angeles, make the rounds of production companies, and see who was interested in their tool.

What unconventional method did the company use to convert potential employers into customers?

The company responded to companies interested in hiring them as a software engineer by suggesting they buy the software that does the same job instead.

How did the company utilize their network to find initial customers?

They started by launching with friends and family to test processes and pricing, and then received referrals through their networks, including extended family holiday home pages.

Outlines

00:00

🚪 Door-to-Door Sales and Cold Outreach Success

The first paragraph details the journey of acquiring the first customer through various methods, including a door-to-door approach and cold outreach. The founders capitalized on a chance encounter with a food truck owner during his break, leading to their first sale. They also utilized LinkedIn to engage in conversations that helped refine their understanding of customer needs. A mock-up of their product, coupled with a waitlist on their website, attracted significant interest from a Reddit post, resulting in nearly a thousand sign-ups within 24 hours. This demonstrated a strong market need for their solution.

🌐 Leveraging Social Media and Networking for Customer Acquisition

This paragraph highlights the use of social media platforms like Twitter and GitHub to attract attention and customers. The company experienced a surge in followers and GitHub stars, leading to a high volume of unique daily visitors. The founders also received their first paying customer through a waitlist generated from sharing their work on LinkedIn. Networking played a crucial role, with introductions to industry professionals facilitating potential customer connections.

🛫 In-Person Networking and Direct Outreach for Customer Engagement

The third paragraph focuses on the strategy of in-person networking and direct outreach to potential customers. The speaker plans to visit Los Angeles to meet with production companies to gauge interest in their tool. They also mention converting companies interested in hiring them as a software engineer into customers for their software product, demonstrating a proactive approach to sales.

🤝 Friends, Family, and Referrals as a Foundation for Customer Base

In this paragraph, the founders discuss starting with friends and family as their initial customers to test processes and pricing. They received referrals through their networks, which helped in naturally evolving their customer base. The paragraph also mentions the stress and benefits of having a close relationship with their first customer, who happened to be a friend.

📈 Building Customer Trust Through Personal Connections and Market Techniques

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of personal connections and industry experience in securing the first few customers. The founders leveraged their professional network to pitch their product, which led to real financial support from investors who believed in their vision. They also express hope that positive feedback and effective market entry strategies will help accelerate customer acquisition by their demo day.

Keywords

💡Cold Outreach

Cold Outreach refers to the act of initiating contact with potential customers or clients without any prior relationship or introduction. In the video, it is mentioned as a method where the first customer was acquired by going door-to-door, which is a form of cold outreach. It's a common strategy in sales and marketing to expand the customer base by directly approaching prospects.

💡Customer Discovery

Customer Discovery is the process of understanding the needs, wants, and pain points of potential customers to validate or refine a product or service offering. In the script, it is mentioned that the creators had customer discovery calls to gauge interest in their product, which is essential for tailoring the solution to meet market demands effectively.

💡LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform often used for business development, recruitment, and marketing. In the context of the video, it is highlighted as a channel through which the company acquired their first customer by leveraging their professional network to share their product and attract interest.

💡Mock-up

A Mock-up is a prototype or a preliminary model of a product that is used to demonstrate its functionality or design. The script mentions creating a mock-up of their dream personal finance product, which they used to generate interest and sign-ups on their website, illustrating the importance of visual representation in early-stage product development.

💡Waitlist

A Waitlist is a list of people who express interest in a product or service before its official launch, often used to gauge demand and build a customer base. The video discusses a waitlist on their website that attracted nearly a thousand sign-ups within 24 hours, indicating the effectiveness of the waitlist strategy in building anticipation for the product.

💡Beta

Beta refers to a testing phase of a product where it is released to a select group of users to identify and fix bugs before a full launch. The script mentions launching a 'close beta,' which implies a restricted testing phase with onboarding of customers to refine the product based on real user feedback.

💡GitHub

GitHub is a platform for version control and collaboration that is widely used by developers. The video mentions gaining 20,000 stars on GitHub, which is a measure of popularity and interest from the developer community, indicating the product's appeal and potential for adoption among tech-savvy users.

💡Networking

Networking involves building and nurturing professional relationships to exchange information and access opportunities. The script refers to using networking to make introductions to big AG tech companies, highlighting the importance of personal connections in business development and customer acquisition.

💡Referrals

Referrals are instances where existing customers recommend a product or service to others within their network. The video discusses referrals from friends and family as a method of gaining new customers, demonstrating the power of word-of-mouth marketing in expanding a business.

💡Pricing

Pricing is the process of setting the monetary value of a product or service. In the script, the creators mention testing their pricing with friends and family to see what worked and what didn't, which is crucial for determining the right price point that customers are willing to pay.

💡Go-to-Market Techniques

Go-to-Market Techniques are strategies used to launch a product or service into the market effectively. The script mentions using various go-to-market techniques to accelerate customer acquisition by demo day, indicating the importance of strategic planning in reaching the target audience and achieving business growth.

Highlights

Found first customer through a cold email on Reddit.

Obtained first customer by going door-to-door and waiting for the owner.

Closed a deal with a physical therapist who called back after a voicemail.

Started with background explanation to gain trust from the first customer.

Sold the first product for $250 a month without any existing code.

Developed a rough version of the product in just seven days.

Utilized LinkedIn to acquire the first customer.

Gained significant traction on Reddit, with nearly a thousand people signing up for the waitlist within 24 hours.

Launched a close beta and started onboarding customers from the waitlist.

Experienced a viral launch on Twitter, gaining 10,000 followers and 20,000 GitHub stars.

Received 150,000 unique visitors a day after the Twitter launch.

Acquired the first paying customer through inbound interest from LinkedIn.

Leveraged networking to get introductions at big AG tech companies.

Planning to visit LA to meet production companies and gauge interest in the tool.

Converted companies interested in hiring the founder as a software engineer into software customers.

Launched with friends and family to test processes and pricing before expanding.

Received referrals from friends and family, expanding the customer base.

First system was installed at an extended family member's holiday home.

Many founders get their first few customers from their personal network.

Shared the startup's progress on LinkedIn to attract early customers.

Transcripts

did you find your first customer

surprisingly a cold email that's a good

question a lot of calls and emailing on

Reddit actually we don't have them yet

we are currently looking

[Music]

the first one was actually just kind of

very crafted cold Outreach we got our

first customer just literally going door

to door standing in the sun waiting for

the owner to just

show up because he was just in his food

truck all day and ended up taking a

break and then we just capitalized and

closed it actually I'd left a voicemail

for one of our physical therapists that

we're working with and she called me

back and she was like oh tell me more

about you know what got your start we

actually gave our background on like

this is why we got into it and she

thought it was like you know we were

coming from a good place so she wanted

to work with this and it should be just

a customer Discovery calls to try and

figure out if this was something people

would be interested in and we sold it to

one company for 250 for a month and we

didn't have any code and we just made

like made like a version of it in seven

days and deployed it it's pretty rough

seven days though yeah we got our first

customer by using LinkedIn

and at some point we got some

conversations with those customers and

we started like better understanding the

needs better understanding like what

kind of solution than it did so we made

a mock-up of our Dream personal finance

product we made a website for it with a

little wait list and we posted it on our

Reddit group and within 24 hours there

was like close to a thousand people that

had signed up for the waitlist it really

resonated with a lot of people that were

having the same like Financial pain

points as us we launched our close beta

and started onboarding those customers

for us it was a bit of a wild week in

which we launched on Twitter and

suddenly a few days later I went from 50

followers to like 10 000 we had 20 000

stars on GitHub we had 150 000 unique

visitors a day and so we're really

fortunate to have the lightning in a

bottle and have all these customers come

to us you're asking a great time we

actually got our first customer paying

this morning how did you find that first

customer so we launched we shared what

we were doing about two and a half weeks

ago on just our linkedins and shared

with our friends and a lot of people

came inbound people were really curious

about what we were building here

um got a great wait list and this

customer came through that wait list

which was really exciting we don't

really have any customers yet but we've

got like one really good advisor who

sort of made some introductions to Folks

at a couple of the big AG tech companies

so sort of networking our way in really

we are in data so immediately after I

get out of here I'm getting on a plane

to go to La for a few days and we're

kind of we're going to make the rounds

of the production companies and see

who's interested in this tool how are

you going to try to get that first

customer I take all the companies that

message me trying to hire me as a

software engineer for their biotech

company and I respond saying No but

how would you like to buy software that

does the same thing we have users

um and we are currently converting them

into paid customers first customer we

got was a friend of ours it's like

hitting up friends talking to other

people in the space that I was close

with we launched with friends and family

so that way we can test our processes

out our pricing and see what was working

what wasn't and then from there it kind

of naturally evolved we started getting

referrals from our friends and family

through our networks trice's extended

family holiday home pages to put in the

first system which has been great like

talk about the best customer for me for

him having you know his in-laws holiday

home has been a little bit more

stressful but I'm like this is great as

with a lot of Founders uh your first few

customers come from your network and so

I was fortunate enough to work with some

amazing folks across a wide range of

Industries went and kind of told them a

little bit about what we were building

and they liked where we were building

enough to put real money behind it and

so that's how we got the first few

customers and you know hopefully the

good word we get from them and a few

other kind of go to market techniques

we're trying will help us really

accelerate get way more customers by

demo day

foreign

[Music]