πŸ’₯ Where do the first 100 customers really come from?

Ryan Rich
17 replies
I would have NEVER guessed in a million years where our most impactful early adopters / users actually came from πŸ€” πŸ€” So I'm wondering for the rest of y'all: For B2B startups, where do the first 100 customers REALLY come from?!

Replies

TL Robinson
All of mine were from social media. People with a specific life experience and need. Users automatically joined when they found out about the app.
Ryan Rich
@tl__robinson Do you think this would have been as effective in the B2B space? I've had a lot of organic success with LinkedIn, but that could be unique to my industry (most of the people on LinkedIn are in sales, which is my ICP).
TL Robinson
@ryan_rich That's a good question. The B2B approach is different due to the nature of my business. On LinkedIn, the focus is less about the app and more about educating associates. We're currently working on the best formula to successfully engage on that platform.
Ryan Rich
to be honest, for us: - first ~5 were network or friends of network - next handful were from LinkedIn posts, random folks hearing about us in the startup/sales community - leads from our Seed announcement in TechCrunch back in Feb was 10x the aggregate inbound conversations we've had so far - testing hyper-personalized outbound later this year so TBD - our GA product launch last week on Product Hunt (August 18th) seems to be having a big impact but will have to report back after the coming days! πŸ€“
Ryan Rich
@floyd6648 Curious to hear more? What platforms? Paid or organic?
Siddhesh Lokare
The first 100 customers usually are a result of your 1. WhatsApp network 2. Inner circle and followers on Instagram 3. If you are on stealth, then maybe PR can help. But, trust me, the real journey begins after getting those 100 customers!
Ryan Rich
@siddhesh_lokare1 Hey Siddhesh, I think it really depends on your ACV and whether you're in the B2C or B2B world. You can easily build a $100m company with a strong mote with under 100 customers (not that valuation is the goal). How do you leverage your network on WhatsApp and Instagram? We've yet to try that at Accord!
Siddhesh Lokare
@ryan_rich That makes sense. We leveraged WhatsApp Groups by notifying latest features, newsletters, targeted content, community event updates and also we replicated the same methodology on Telegram Channels. You can also make use of business accounts for showcasing the product catalogue.
Depends on the product. But most people start tapping into their immediate circle (friends, family, followers, connections on social media, etc.) and their network who match their target criteria.
Florian Buguet
For us it was a mix of the following in that order -Product research that actually converted into first customers because their current setup was dying / limited ~3 -People or families working at tech companies we knew -Personalized linkedin outreach -Communities where we posted and helped other folks on their questions (slack, forums, etc.) -Intros from current customers to other potential customers -Personalized email outreach
Chad Q. Brown
Referrals, referrals, referrals. We are still looking at how to grow outside of word-of-mouth.
Pablo Fatas
We got our first 100 users from talking to people we knew and in the scene and once we felt we had a good user base we launched on PH (https://www.producthunt.com/post...) and since then we have hit 3k users and are competing for product of the month with OpenAI! but those first 100 users have to be people who you know and are willing to be honest and harsh to make sure you can get something out that makes sense to the general public
Lalit Tyagi
Tough answer to be given. But you can try to hustle different platforms ,communities social network. Depend on your product or your service. Quite honest there is no standard rule. It looks like you need to do lot of things for first 100 customer and need to try each step.Sometime you got lucky one or 2 methods get you success sometime it wont.But you need to hustle it up
Suman Prasad
The initial few from personal network, then social media promotions, word of mouth.
Evan Sellers
Not gotten there yet. What did everyone else do?
Jason Grills
It’s all boils down to how you really promote your brand and what’s your messaging to capture your first 100 customers. Your brand needs to stand for something, should be made visible to others on commonly searched terms, and let’s not forget the ability to approach brands and try out your products for free. You can even contact influencers to take your product for a spin and see what sought of audience will most likely invest in the tool initially.