Thread

Ask HN: How do you get first 10 customers?

Hacker News Free Beginner

Dozens of founders answer in the comments with what actually worked for them, and cold email is a minority answer among stories about communities they were already part of, direct manual outreach to people they knew, and content they had already published. It is a useful, unfiltered gut check against any single playbook, including this one.

  • Most first customer stories in the thread involve an existing relationship or community, not a cold list.
  • Founders repeatedly mention going where their exact buyer already gathers online, rather than emailing broadly.
  • The range of answers shows there is no one right channel, the constant is founder effort somewhere specific.
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The question it answers

  1. When does cold outreach stop scaling, and what do I move to next?

Read with it

  1. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  2. Fifty-plus recent YC founders answer the exact question every early founder asks. The pattern across their answers is the lesson. YC Startup Library Article · ~10 min read Founder FAQ: How did you get your first customer? Y Combinator (50+ founders)
  3. A step-by-step, modern YC walkthrough of identifying buyers, starting conversations, and converting them into your first... YC Startup Library Video · ~20 min How to Get Your First 10 Customers Max Kolysh (Y Combinator)
  4. The canonical explanation of why linear funnels break and self-reinforcing growth loops compound, from the team that trains... Reforge Blog Article · ~15 min read Growth Loops Are the New Funnels Brian Balfour & Reforge team
  5. Battle-tested referral advice from the person who turned Airbnb's host referral program into its biggest driver of supply... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~20 min read Building a Referrals Program Lenny Rachitsky
  6. This is the one guide that walks the full technical stack in plain language: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, domain warmup timelines, and the... Smartlead Article Email Deliverability Guide: SPF, DKIM, Warmup and Everything That Gets You to the Inbox Satwick Ghosh (Smartlead)
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