Video · ~30 min video

How to Get Your First Customers

Gustaf Alstromer (Y Combinator) · YC Startup Library Free Beginner

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 on ycombinator.com ↗

It answers 13 questions

  1. I'm a technical founder and I hate selling, do I really have to do sales myself?
  2. My launch flopped and nobody cared, did I mess it up?
  3. What's the best channel to launch on, Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, or LinkedIn?
  4. How do I get my first users for the MVP?
  5. What tools should I use to send and track cold outreach without spamming?
  6. How many people should I actually reach out to before I expect to close my first 10 paying customers?
  7. I'm a solo technical founder and hate selling. How do I get my first customers without becoming a salesperson?
  8. How do I launch in India where there's no single 'Product Hunt moment' that reaches Indian founders and buyers?
  9. Should I gate my launch behind a waitlist, or does a waitlist just kill the momentum I worked to build?
  10. Should I try to close my first 10 customers one by one, or run a small launch to get them all at once?
  11. I'm a solo technical founder. How do I MVP a two-sided marketplace when I need both buyers and sellers before it works at all?
  12. I'm a solo non-technical founder with no audience. How do I launch when I have zero followers to post to?

And 1 more across the hub.

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. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  3. A tactical follow-on covering the channels and motions top B2B startups scale after the first ten. Grounds distribution... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How to win your first 10 B2B customers Lenny Rachitsky
  4. This is the best method for the exact job of learning an industry's language when you cannot yet get face time with people in... Stacking the Bricks (Amy Hoy) Article · video walkthrough Sales Safari in Action Amy Hoy
  5. The definitive talk that reframes launching from a one-shot event into a repeatable tactic, exactly this category's thesis. YC... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Launch (Again and Again) Kat Manalac (Y Combinator)
  6. The authoritative handbook on founder-led sales, written for technical/first-time sellers building B2B SaaS. Readable free... foundingsales.com Book · book (~400 pages) Founding Sales: The Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook Peter Kazanjy
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