Get your first customers
Getting your first 10 customers
Do things that don't scale to get to ten.
Showing 6 of 18 questions. Clear filters
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...
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...
Everyone says do things that don't scale, but where's the line between that and just wasting weeks doing manual work?
The point of unscalable work is learning and love: you do it manually to discover what customers actually need and to win them personally, not to p...
Should I try to close my first 10 customers one by one, or run a small launch to get them all at once?
For your very first customers, one by one usually beats a splashy launch, because each hand-sold deal teaches you why people say yes or no, and a l...
I run a two-sided marketplace. Do I get my first customers by starting with supply or demand, and how do I avoid the empty-restaurant problem?
Marketplaces die empty on both sides, so pick the side that is easier to bootstrap manually and fake the other until it is real, which usually mean...
How do I actually keep my first 10 customers so they don't quietly churn while I go chasing the next 10?
Landing the first 10 is only half the job: if they churn, you do not have a business, you have a leaky demo. Treat these first customers like VIPs,...
eChai Partner Brands
The partnership →
