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. This is a mainstream, practical rundown of the fundamentals: research, subject lines, and why you're writing to this specific... HubSpot Blog Article The Ins and Outs of Cold Emailing That Delivers Results Jay Fuchs In 2 answers
  2. Josh Braun walks through building one specific cold email for one specific, well-chosen prospect, showing exactly why a message... Josh Braun Article · 8 min read Let's Write a Good Cold Email Josh Braun In 2 answers
  3. Steli Efti built Close after running outsourced sales for over 200 venture backed startups, so this guide is written by someone... startupsalesguide.com Article · 20 min read Steli Efti's Ultimate Startup Guide To Outbound Sales Steli Efti In 2 answers
  4. A short, free checklist you can hold next to your draft while writing your first cold email, not just the subject line but the... Josh Braun Template 15 Cold Email Copywriting Principles Josh Braun In 2 answers
  5. Jason Lemkin is the investor on the other end of the email, walking through two real cold emails he actually funded and... SaaStr (Jason Lemkin) Article 2 Cold Emails I Funded For Millions SaaStr (Jason Lemkin) In 2 answers
  6. Josh Braun makes a living teaching sales teams to write first lines that could not be pasted into anyone else's inbox, which is... Josh Braun Essay · 5 min read Killer Cold Email Opening Lines Josh Braun In 2 answers
  7. Gong analyzed tens of millions of real sales emails, so instead of taking someone's word for what good personalization looks... Gong Article · 9 min read Does Cold Email Even Work Any More? Here's What the Data Says Gong In 2 answers
  8. Before you send a single cold email to a real prospect, send one to this tool. It gives you a spam score out of 10, checks your... mail-tester.com Tool Mail Tester mail-tester.com In 2 answers
  9. Directly useful if part of your targeting question is whether you should even be emailing the CEO. It looks at how seniority... Gong Article Do execs really reply to cold email? Here's what the data says Gong In 2 answers
  10. McKenzie went from zero consulting clients to a full pipeline using direct, honest outreach with no case studies to point to,... Kalzumeus Software Podcast · 50 min audio Ramit Sethi and Patrick McKenzie on Getting Your First Consulting Client Patrick McKenzie, Ramit Sethi In 2 answers
  11. Carlos Espinal is a seed investor who reads cold pitches for a living, and this essay lays out exactly what he needs in the... Medium Essay · ~8 min read The Art of the Cold Outreach for Founders Carlos E. Espinal In 2 answers
  12. The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for... paulgraham.com Essay · ~20 min read How to Get Startup Ideas Paul Graham
  13. Market size is meaningless until you know exactly who you're for, and Lenny turns that into a concrete, repeatable ICP exercise... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP) Lenny Rachitsky
  14. Twenty founders describe the pivotal moments on their path to fit, and a recurring theme is why the right founder for the right... First Round Review Article · ~25 min read The Only Way to Win: Advice for Founders From Founders First Round Review
  15. The author of Crossing the Chasm explaining beachhead selection in plain, modern language, the fastest way to absorb the... Lenny's Podcast / Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~75 min Geoffrey Moore on finding your beachhead, crossing the chasm, and dominating a market Lenny Rachitsky & Geoffrey Moore
  16. The reference primer on the metrics and market-sizing logic investors use, including bottom-up market sizing that keeps... a16z Article · ~15 min read 16 Startup Metrics Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
  17. The customer-development originator's clearest statement on scoping the minimum feature set to reach your earliest believers.... steveblank.com Article · ~8 min read Perfection by Subtraction, The Minimum Feature Set Steve Blank
  18. The deepest no-code stack, database, workflows, and custom UI, for building genuinely complex web apps and marketplaces without... bubble.io Tool · platform Bubble, No-Code Full-Stack App Builder Bubble
  19. Julian Shapiro's growth handbook frames brand and messaging as downstream of who you're for and what you replace, practical... julian.com Article · 20 min read Positioning (Startup Handbook: brand and marketing foundations) Julian Shapiro
  20. A candid Q&A where a top sales founder answers real early-founder questions on outreach, persistence, and closing.... Stripe Atlas Guides Article · ~15 min read AMA with Steli Efti (Stripe Atlas) Steli Efti / Stripe Atlas
  21. India's best long-form podcast with B2B SaaS founders who cracked global GTM from India, hosted by a 2x founder and Neon Fund... The Neon Show (formerly 100x Entrepreneur) Podcast · podcast series (200+ episodes) The Neon Show (Indian SaaS founders on GTM & sales) Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  22. The official companion site for Traction, summarizing the Bullseye framework for founders who want the method without reading... Traction (companion resource) Article · ~10 min read How to plan and test distribution channels (Bullseye method) DuckDuckGo / Gabriel Weinberg
  23. Asia's largest volunteer-driven community of product leaders and founders, with talks, a podcast, and events packed with... The Product Folks Podcast · community + podcast + events The Product Folks (India's product & GTM community) The Product Folks
  24. The canonical explanation of why linear funnels break and self-reinforcing growth loops compound, from the team that trains... Reforge Blog Article · ~15 min read Growth Loops Are the New Funnels Brian Balfour & Reforge team

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 →