First Customers (GTM)

Should I charge my very first customers or give it away free to get traction?

A starting point

Charge them. Free users tell you polite lies; paying customers tell you the truth, because money is the clearest signal that you've solved a real problem. It can be a small amount, a discount, or a pilot fee, but getting someone to pull out a card validates far more than a signup ever will.

Go deeper

Watch

▶️ Video
Free Beginner

How to Get Your First Customers

On YC Startup Library by Gustaf Alstromer (Y Combinator) ~30 min video

Why we picked it

A YC partner and ex-Airbnb growth lead gives a tactical, no-fluff talk on landing early customers for both B2B and B2C. It's canonical and free.

  • Do things that don't scale, and do sales yourself as a founder.
  • Charge for your product early, paying customers give honest signal.
  • Work backwards from your goals to figure out how many customers you need.
  • Understand your funnel even when the numbers are tiny.
Open ycombinator.com →

Read

📄 Article
Free Beginner

Founder FAQ: How did you get your first customer?

From YC Startup Library by Y Combinator (50+ founders) ~10 min read

Why we picked it

Fifty-plus recent YC founders answer the exact question every early founder asks. The pattern across their answers is the lesson.

  • Nearly every first customer came from a personal connection or direct outreach.
  • Founders hustled, DMs, cold emails, communities, and events, not ads.
  • Speed and persistence beat polish at this stage.
  • There's no magic channel; there's founder effort applied to a specific niche.
Open ycombinator.com →

People also ask

How do I actually get my first 10 customers when nobody has heard of me? You go get them by hand, one at a time, email people you already know, people your investors/friends know, and strangers in the exact niche you're ... Beginner 4 resources → Isn't doing things that don't scale a waste of time, shouldn't I automate from day one? No. Automating too early is how you build a machine that efficiently delivers something nobody wants. The unscalable, unglamorous work, hand-recrui... Beginner 2 resources → Where do I find the very first people to even talk to about my product? Start with the channels that already have trust and work outward: your personal network, then your extended network via warm intros, then the influ... Beginner 3 resources → How did real successful startups actually land their first customers? Almost universally through unscalable, personal effort: Airbnb's founders knocked on doors and re-shot listing photos themselves; Stripe hand-insta... Intermediate 3 resources → I only have a landing page and a waitlist, how do I turn signups into paying customers? A waitlist is not traction; it's a list of people to email personally. Reach out to each signup one-on-one, get on a call, understand their problem... Beginner 2 resources →