Get your first customers

What founders use for get your first customers, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

1. Slack iterated privately with a small team for months, using what they learned to earn a preview release that then turned into... First Round Review Article · 20 min read From 0 to $1B: Slack's Founder Shares Their Epic Launch Strategy First Round Review
2. Gary Vaynerchuk's core argument, document your actual work instead of manufacturing polished content from scratch, is the... garyvaynerchuk.com Essay · 6 min read Document, Don't Create: Creating Content That Builds Your Personal Brand Gary Vaynerchuk
3. Pieter Levels wrote up, in public, exactly how he built and launched a project while narrating each step on Twitter, and this... levels.io Essay · 10 min read Building a startup in public: from first line of code to frontpage of Reddit Pieter Levels
4. This is a direct, practical answer to the flatline problem: specific things to do in the days after your launch day,... Product Hunt Article · 6 min read 4 strategies to keep momentum going post-launch Product Hunt
5. A short, concrete framework for the actual first message you send someone you don't know: lead with something useful, not with... justinwelsh.me Essay How to Write a (Successful) Cold DM Justin Welsh
6. Ferrazzi's whole thesis is that networking works when it's generosity-first and ongoing, not a favor you cash in only when you... Keith Ferrazzi Book Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time Keith Ferrazzi
7. Bohns' research shows founders usually get the psychology backwards: people underestimate how much sway an ask has and how... Vanessa Bohns Book You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters Vanessa Bohns
8. Flynn's research found people underestimate by as much as 50% how often others will say yes to a direct ask, which is useful... Stanford Graduate School of Business Article · ~7 min Francis Flynn: If You Want Something, Ask For It Marguerite Rigoglioso
9. A short, blunt essay that names the exact problem in your question: treating social capital like an infinite chit you can cash... Rachel Mazza Essay · ~5 min Burning Through Social Capital Rachel Mazza
10. The book's whole argument is that the founders with the most useful networks aren't the ones who ask the most, they're... Scott Gerber and Ryan Paugh Book Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Building Relationships Scott Gerber, Ryan Paugh
11. A practical guide built around one idea worth sitting with: network before you need something, so you're not always showing up... First Round Review Article Networking First Round Review
12. If you're going to spend a big ask on a launch that really matters, this research tells you how to spend it well: in-person or... Harvard Business Review Article · ~6 min Need a Favor? Research Suggests It's Best to Ask In Person Mahdi Roghanizad and Vanessa Bohns
13. A short, no-nonsense walkthrough of which handful of numbers actually matter at your stage, straight from YC's own coaching... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · 10 min read Key Startup Metrics Y Combinator Startup Library
14. This is the piece that pushes you to write down your success number before you launch, exactly the discipline our answer asks... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · 8 min read Setting KPIs and Goals Y Combinator Startup Library
15. Balfour argues that a big, splashy launch to everyone actually hurts you: it buries the signal you need under noise from people... Brian Balfour Essay · 15 min read How To Launch A Product or Feature To Maximize Growth Brian Balfour
16. The Naukri.com founder, using Zomato as the case study, makes the same case as our answer from an Indian boardroom: valuation... Forbes India Article · 8 min read Startups Must Move Away From Vanity Metrics Sanjeev Bikhchandani
17. Rand Fishkin writes with total candor about the mistakes, product failures, and eventual founder exit that shaped Moz, then... Penguin Random House Book Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World Rand Fishkin
18. This is the data behind if you talk less than the customer, you're doing it right. Gong analyzed hundreds of thousands of real... Gong Labs Article · ~10 min read Mastering the talk-to-listen ratio in sales calls Gong Labs
19. A tight, practical checklist for the specific call type this question is about: the first real conversation with a prospect. It... Gong Article · ~8 min read 8 Things to Consider Before Your Next Discovery Call Gong Labs
20. This breaks founder sales into seven distinct conversation types, from qualifying to first contact to asking for a referral, so... SaaStock Article · ~7 min read The 7 Essential Customer Conversations According to Steli Efti Steli Efti
21. Jason Lemkin makes the case that the person who ghosted you almost never made a conscious decision to ignore you, they just got... SaaStr Article VCs Don't Really Ghost You. They are Just Prospects. Treat Them as Such. Jason Lemkin
22. A short, concrete story from Steli Efti about following up with a single unresponsive investor 48 times before finally getting... LinkedIn Article How I followed up with an investor 48 times Steli Efti
23. Gong analyzed tens of thousands of real sales calls and found that deals which felt like sure things often died quietly because... Gong Article Why Deals Fail to Close and How to Succeed Next Time Gong
24. A practical reference you can keep open during calls: real objections, like it's too expensive or I need to think about it,... HubSpot Article Objection Handling: 44 Common Sales Objections & How to Respond Mark Burdon

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