First Customers (GTM)

How do I find my first 10 customers to sell to when I have zero network and no inbound?

A starting point

Your first 10 will not come from posting online, they will come from you personally reaching out to people who already have the problem you solve. Make a list of 50 specific humans (not companies) you can email or DM directly, mention a real reason you are contacting them, and ask for a 15-minute call, not a sale. This is grunt work that does not scale, and that is exactly why it works at this stage.

Go deeper

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

3 resources 2 link-checked

Read

📖 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 →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Freemium Intermediate

Why we picked it A tactical follow-on covering the channels and motions top B2B startups scale after the first ten. Grounds distribution strategy in real company examples.

How to win your first 10 B2B customers

From Lenny's Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky ~15 min read

  • Content/SEO is a surprisingly dominant B2B channel (Vanta, Amplitude, Figma, HubSpot).
  • The core B2B channels: self-serve inbound, sales-assist inbound, outbound, content, paid, partnerships.
  • Pick and systematize the one channel that compounds for you.
  • Distribution strategy should follow evidence, not fashion.
Open lennysnewsletter.com →
✍️ Essay
Free Beginner

Why we picked it The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few customers. The cheapest, most honest way to validate demand is to go get it one person at a time.

Do Things That Don't Scale

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~15 min read

  • Recruit your first users manually, don't wait for them to come.
  • A tiny group of users who love you beats a big group who like you.
  • Manual, unscalable effort early is a feature, not a failure.
Open paulgraham.com →

People also ask

I'm a technical founder and I hate selling, do I really have to do sales myself? Yes, and you can't outsource it early. Nobody understands or believes in your product more than you, so nobody will sell it better, and doing sales... Beginner 3 resources → How do I run a sales call without sounding like a pushy salesperson? Stop pitching and start diagnosing, great founder sales is mostly asking sharp questions and listening. Use a SPIN-style approach: understand their... Intermediate 3 resources → How do I handle objections and prospects who go silent on me? Objections are buying signals, welcome them and ask questions to get to the real concern behind them. For ghosting, be shamelessly persistent and f... Intermediate 3 resources → When do I know it's time to hire a salesperson instead of doing it myself? Not until the motion is repeatable and you can predict it. A useful bar: do at least ~50 demos and hit a win rate around 20% or higher before you h... Advanced 2 resources → What sales process should I follow if I've never sold anything before? Keep it simple: qualify hard, do a discovery call before ever demoing, tailor the demo to the problem they told you about, then ask for the close w... Intermediate 2 resources → How is founder-led sales different for Indian founders selling to global (US) buyers? The fundamentals are identical, but the trust gap is bigger, early Indian SaaS founders win by being maniacally responsive, offering generous pilot... Advanced 2 resources →