Get your first customers

The scrappy, unscalable work of going from zero to your first users.

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

  1. UPI Autopay lets you set up a recurring mandate on a customer's account so a subscription or installment debits automatically... Razorpay Tool UPI Autopay | Razorpay Razorpay
  2. A free, plain-language contract template built specifically for running a paid pilot, with the scope, fee, and success criteria... Common Paper Template Pilot Agreement Common Paper
  3. When a spreadsheet finally starts to strain, this is the most common next step: unlimited contacts, deal tracking, and email... HubSpot Tool Free CRM for Small Business HubSpot
  4. Built by an Indian company and free for up to three users, this is the CRM a lot of early Indian B2B founders reach for because... Zoho Tool Zoho CRM Free Edition Zoho
  5. A free grab-bag of the actual artifacts (email templates, qualification checklists, call scripts) you need to run consistent... Close Template · 9 email templates, 3 checklists, 2 scripts, 5 books The Startup Sales Resource Bundle Close / Steli Efti
  6. A plug-and-play spreadsheet for calculating win rate, average deal size, and churn from your own numbers. Use it to actually... HubSpot Tool · spreadsheet tool Sales Metrics Calculator HubSpot
  7. A US buyer deciding whether to trust an unfamiliar Indian vendor reads your contract as closely as your product. YC's free,... Y Combinator Template YC Standard Sales Agreement Template Y Combinator
  8. The cheapest way to bridge a twelve hour timezone gap is to stop scheduling a live call for everything. Loom lets you record a... Loom Tool Loom for Sales Loom
  9. When your short answer says follow up on the date whether or not they replied, eventually you reach the point where you need a... HubSpot Template The Power of Breakup Emails: 7 Templates To Close the Loop HubSpot
  10. A CRM built specifically around follow-up: it reminds you to send that recap, flags the date you promised to circle back, and... Close Tool Close Close
  11. Hunter built its business around helping people find and email the right person, so this guide doubles as both a practical... Hunter.io Tool A Complete Guide to Cold Email Outreach Hunter.io
  12. Once your email is well written, the next problem is knowing whether it was even opened, and Streak sits directly inside Gmail... Streak Tool Email Tracking from Gmail Streak
  13. The single biggest reason founders under follow-up isn't strategy, it's forgetting. This tool auto-reminds you (or auto-sends a... Boomerang for Gmail Tool Boomerang for Gmail: Email Follow-Up Reminders Boomerang for Gmail
  14. A practical library of short LinkedIn opening messages organized by scenario, which you can adapt instead of guessing at tone... Sales Bread Template 37 Best LinkedIn Cold Message Templates That Get Replies Sales Bread
  15. A free five-day email course covering the whole cold email process end to end: defining who to target, finding accurate contact... Hunter.io Course · 5 days Hunter's Cold Email Course Hunter.io
  16. A tool built specifically around sequencing cold email and LinkedIn touches together, which matches the exact combine-them... lemlist.com Tool lemlist lemlist.com
  17. This guide's central argument matches our answer exactly: most prospect lists fail at definition, not sourcing, so precision... Clay Tool · Guide + tool How to Build a Targeted Prospect List Clay
  18. LinkedIn is where most B2B founders will actually find the named individuals who match their ICP, and Sales Navigator's filters... LinkedIn Tool LinkedIn Sales Navigator LinkedIn
  19. Close is the CRM named directly in this hub's own advice, and for good reason. It is built specifically for founders and small... Close Tool Close CRM for Startups Close
  20. Before you pay for any tool, this is the spreadsheet that gets you organized: contacts, pipeline stage, and follow up dates in... HubSpot Template Free CRM Spreadsheet Template HubSpot
  21. GMass runs entirely inside Gmail, so you can send personalized batches and see opens, clicks, and replies without leaving your... GMass Tool · 10 min read GMass Startup Guide for Cold Emailers GMass
  22. A free, instant way to sanity-check a draft subject line against length, clarity, and tone before you send it, useful as a... CoSchedule Tool Email Subject Line Analyzer CoSchedule
  23. Hustle Fund invests at pre-seed and reviews over a thousand companies a month, so their founders team has read (and rejected)... Hustle Fund (Hustle Commons) Template Cold Email Tips + Templates Hustle Fund (Hustle Commons)
  24. Streak is a Gmail-based CRM built for exactly this workflow: sending outreach and tracking whether it's actually being opened.... Streak Tool Streak: How to Write a Cold Email to an Investor Streak

Show the next 24

The questions

Getting your first 10 customers 18

Do things that don't scale to get to ten.

How do I actually get my first 10 customers when nobody has heard of me? 19 → Isn't doing things that don't scale a waste of time, shouldn't I automate from day one? 17 → Where do I find the very first people to even talk to about my product? 18 → Should I charge my very first customers or give it away free to get traction? 18 → How did real successful startups actually land their first customers? 20 → All 18 questions in Getting your first 10 customers →
Launching (again and again) 18

A launch is a tactic you repeat, not an event.

When is my product 'ready' to launch? 19 → My launch flopped and nobody cared, did I mess it up? 20 → How do I actually launch on Product Hunt and not embarrass myself? 15 → What's the best channel to launch on, Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, or LinkedIn? 17 → How do I build up an audience before I launch so it's not just crickets? 18 → All 18 questions in Launching (again and again) →
Founder-led sales 18

Nobody sells your product better than you, yet.

I'm a technical founder and I hate selling, do I really have to do sales myself? 18 → How do I run a sales call without sounding like a pushy salesperson? 15 → How do I handle objections and prospects who go silent on me? 17 → When do I know it's time to hire a salesperson instead of doing it myself? 19 → What sales process should I follow if I've never sold anything before? 17 → All 18 questions in Founder-led sales →
Cold outreach & email 18

Start conversations with strangers who need you.

How do I write a cold email that people actually reply to? 19 → How many times should I follow up before giving up on a cold prospect? 18 → Cold email or cold LinkedIn/DM, what works better for reaching first customers? 19 → Is cold outreach even worth it, or is it just spam that hurts my brand? 19 → How do I build a targeted list of the right people to cold email? 18 → All 18 questions in Cold outreach & email →
Distribution & channel strategy 18

The channel is the strategy.

How do I figure out which distribution channel is right for my startup? 2 → Why does everyone say 'distribution is more important than product'? 2 → What are the actual distribution channels I can choose from? 1 → Should I focus on one channel or spread across many? 2 → How do the fastest-growing B2B companies find and scale their distribution? 2 → All 18 questions in Distribution & channel strategy →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →