Get your first customers

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

1. Ship is a landing page and waitlist tool built specifically for the pre-launch teaser stage of a campaign like the one in the... Product Hunt Tool Ship by Product Hunt: A toolkit for makers to ship awesome products Product Hunt
2. 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
3. Justin Jackson built this course specifically for technical founders who are good at shipping but go quiet on marketing right... justinjackson.ca Course · self-paced course Marketing for Developers Justin Jackson
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. A fast, watchable version of the giver/taker/matcher framework if you don't have time for the full book. It's a good gut-check... TED Video Adam Grant: Are you a giver or a taker? Adam Grant
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. Video · 20 min How To Keep Your Users Y Combinator Startup School (YouTube)
17. 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
18. Ivan Zhao talks in detail about the years Notion nearly died, including a full technical rewrite after the first version... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · 1 hour 12 minutes Notion's lost years, its near collapse during Covid, staying small to move fast, the joy and suffering of building horizontal, more | Ivan Zhao (CEO and co-founder) Ivan Zhao, hosted by Lenny Rachitsky
19. 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
20. This episode goes directly at the insecurity behind the question: founders worry that selling themselves makes their company... The Startup Chat with Steli & Hiten Podcast Should Founders Be Doing Sales? Will Prospects Take Their Startups Serious? The Startup Chat with Steli & Hiten
21. 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
22. 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
23. 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
24. 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

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