First Customers (GTM)

My first 5 customers were friends who signed up to be nice. How do I know if any of them actually want the product?

A starting point

Friends will smile and sign up, then quietly never use it, which feels like traction but is just kindness. The signal you want is behavior, not words: did they come back on their own, did they refer someone, did they get annoyed when it broke? A cleaner starting point is to ask friends to introduce you to one person who fits the problem, then sell to that stranger, because a stranger's yes is worth ten friendly ones.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked Watch Read

Watch

▶️ Video
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it When you have no budget and one weekend, the highest-signal research isn't a report, it's a handful of real conversations, and this YC talk is the clearest guide to doing them well. Gustaf Alstromer shows exactly what to ask so users hand you real problems instead of polite opinions. It reframes market research from something you buy into something a solo founder can just go do.

How To Talk To Users | Startup School

On Y Combinator by Gustaf Alstromer ~20 min

How To Talk To Users | Startup School
  • A five-minute honest conversation beats thousands of survey responses for understanding whether a market's pain is real.
  • Ask about the person's past and present behavior, not hypothetical futures or whether they like your idea.
  • Hold your solution back until the end (or leave it out) so you don't bias what people tell you.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →

Read

✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for judging whether your idea is a real problem or a solution in search of one.

How to Get Startup Ideas

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~20 min read

  • Live in the future and build what's missing.
  • The best ideas look like bad ideas at first (schleps and hard-to-explain).
  • Start with problems you have, in a domain you actually know.
Open paulgraham.com →
📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Beginner

Why we picked it The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past behaviour, not your idea, so you can't be lied to. If a founder reads one thing before talking to a single customer, it's this.

The Mom Test

From momtestbook.com by Rob Fitzpatrick ~130 pages

  • Talk about their life, not your idea.
  • Ask about specifics in the past, not opinions about the future.
  • 'That's so cool, I'd totally buy it' is a compliment, not data, dig for commitment and evidence.
Open momtestbook.com →

People also ask

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