Get your first customers

How do I figure out which distribution channel is right for my startup?

Run experiments, don't guess. Use the Bullseye framework from 'Traction': brainstorm across all ~19 channels, pick 3 promising ones to cheaply test, then double down on the single channel that clearly works. Almost every startup gets most of its traction from one channel, your job is to find yours fast.

Go deeper

2 resources, 1 link-checked.

📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Beginner

When you have no budget, the worst move is to pour your limited time into a channel that was never going to work for your product. Traction gives you all nineteen ways a startup can reach customers and a simple way (the Bullseye framework) to bet on two or three worth testing first. Treat it as a menu and a method, not a verdict: your free channels will come from this list, you just have to find the ones that fit you.

Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

From Portfolio (Penguin Random House) by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares

  • Most startups die from no distribution, not a weak product, so give traction real time, not leftover time.
  • There are nineteen channels (content, SEO, communities, PR, sales, and more), and most founders ignore the ones that would actually work for them.
  • Bullseye: brainstorm across all channels, rank them, then run cheap tests on your top few instead of guessing.
Open penguinrandomhouse.com →
📄 Article
Free Intermediate

The official companion site for Traction, summarizing the Bullseye framework for founders who want the method without reading the whole book first. Included as the canonical home for the framework.

How to plan and test distribution channels (Bullseye method)

From Traction (companion resource) by DuckDuckGo / Gabriel Weinberg ~10 min read

  • Rank all 19 channels into inner circle, potential, and long shots.
  • Cheaply test your top 3 inner-circle channels in parallel.
  • Focus resources on the single channel showing the most traction.
  • Revisit the exercise as your startup and market evolve.
Open tractionbook.com →

People also ask

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 → As an Indian founder, how do I think about distribution for a global product? 3 → I have zero marketing budget. What distribution can I actually do for free? 3 →

Also in D2C

The same ground, over in Launch & get your first customers, our D2C track.

Where do my first 100 orders actually come from if I have no brand yet? 3 → Should I make myself the face of the brand, or keep the brand separate from my personal identity? 3 →

Also in How Founders Use AI

How founders actually use AI for this, over in Sales Prospecting.

Why use AI to find and qualify leads (Clay, Apollo + AI workflows)? 22 → How do founders personalize cold outreach at scale without being creepy? 22 →

Also in GTM

The same ground, over in Build pipeline, our GTM track.

I have never sent a cold email in my life. Where do I even start? 4 → Everyone says do content. What does inbound actually mean for a startup with no audience? 4 →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →