A lot of these companies had either previous successful companies or extensive networks they relied on for the "tapping your network" part of it. I wonder if that becomes an actual requirement to having a super successful startup.
Hey Lenny - tried to find the articles about the first 100 and 1000 customers, not sure if you wrote these, but in case you did, do you mind sharing the links?
We launched safecar(uber like)recently in kampala but we are trying to acquire B2B users however it's been a challenge especially with already existing competition. Who could advise on the best pitch to move a B2B client from another competitor?
Hi, Lenny! We are trying to build a social knowledge app with fair distribution. The team is super excited about this. The thing is, we don't have any personal networks, or in another word, we don't have any potential customers in our personal networks, so how could we get this done?
Great summary and always learn something from your article. So, I acquire my first 85 paid customers via friends and family and go to where my customers are approached.. I am at the stage of productizing our process and not sure if I shall continue to hustle to acquire customers the "do things don't scale" way or I shall focus more on product growth strategy with the goal to turn our process more bottom-up and self-serve. Right now, it's still a lot of direct sales by me although we are getting more and more organic customer referrals.
That’s a super good question, and I haven’t yet spent a lot of time thinking through when to make the transition to more scalable channels. But in the meantime, check this post out: https://www.reforge.com/blog/racecar-growth-framework
more precisely, I love hearing about those companies (square) that didn't have a waiting list and really scratched and clawed for those first 10 customers!
A lot of these companies had either previous successful companies or extensive networks they relied on for the "tapping your network" part of it. I wonder if that becomes an actual requirement to having a super successful startup.
It seems that way. At least for the startups listed here.
Funny. At my previous start-up the first 2 customer existed before even the idea of a product.
2 people (1 friend, 1 acquaintance) reached out about a hot new feature on MacOS.
This happening within 1 day + me drawing a parallel with previous platform models on iOS made me think there's a product here.
The next 10 were from a landing page + intentional outreach.
Hey Lenny - tried to find the articles about the first 100 and 1000 customers, not sure if you wrote these, but in case you did, do you mind sharing the links?
Working on that right now!
I know this is from a couple years ago but did you ever publish this?
We launched safecar(uber like)recently in kampala but we are trying to acquire B2B users however it's been a challenge especially with already existing competition. Who could advise on the best pitch to move a B2B client from another competitor?
Hi, Lenny! We are trying to build a social knowledge app with fair distribution. The team is super excited about this. The thing is, we don't have any personal networks, or in another word, we don't have any potential customers in our personal networks, so how could we get this done?
Interesting
Thank you! Up :)
Great summary and always learn something from your article. So, I acquire my first 85 paid customers via friends and family and go to where my customers are approached.. I am at the stage of productizing our process and not sure if I shall continue to hustle to acquire customers the "do things don't scale" way or I shall focus more on product growth strategy with the goal to turn our process more bottom-up and self-serve. Right now, it's still a lot of direct sales by me although we are getting more and more organic customer referrals.
That’s a super good question, and I haven’t yet spent a lot of time thinking through when to make the transition to more scalable channels. But in the meantime, check this post out: https://www.reforge.com/blog/racecar-growth-framework
Awesome! Thanks so much, Lenny!
Your breakdowns are factful, honest, and well-structured. I've learned something, thank you Lenny 🤝
Thanks for sharing! A very similar post but from one company that may be useful to others: https://medium.com/lean-startup-circle/how-to-get-your-first-10-customers-81170a5e65a9
This is great. Zero to One journey is hardest part for many entrepreneurs. These compilation will certainly helps Thank You!
Great article and thanks for the hard work :)
Great article. Loved to hear these insights Lenny!
this is a great summary--distills oft-referenced advice ("do things that don't scale") into three simple strategies. simple yet enormously difficult.
Love the first hand experiences, Lenny! Really great.
more precisely, I love hearing about those companies (square) that didn't have a waiting list and really scratched and clawed for those first 10 customers!
Yeah, it seems like that's a little less common for the breakout successes but it's cool to hear about those that did do it without a giant wait list.