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The 5 most common tactics great companies have used to get their first customers. From researching startups, unicorns and companies from Apple to Uber. A thread 1/
1. Visit the Watering Holes - Before starting @Apple, @stevewoz & Jobs went to the Homebrew Computer club and met with other computer enthusiasts. They found their first customers by selling etched and silkscreened circuit board that others could use to build their own computer.
Like the Steves, find groups and communities with similar interests who might be interested in your product. @Etsy is another example. They went across the country to craft fairs and found the best vendors at each event then convinced them to sell online.
2. Use Your Network - When @rrhoover started @ProductHunt, he invited people in his network to join a daily list of products. You probably have people in your network who are either interested or can introduce you to someone who is.
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3. Recruit Users Manually - @Tinder got their first users by going on a tour to various colleges and meeting with sorority chapters. Similar to the Steves at the HomeBrew Computer club and Etsy at the craft fairs, Tinder met face to face with prospects and sold their products.
Same with @stripe. The Collison brothers ( @patrickc ) were known for grabbing an interested person's computer and setting them up on the spot. They didn't wait. It became known as the “Collison installation”.
4. Do Things that Don't Scale - An idea by @paulg Paul Graham http://paulgraham.com/ds.html . In each example, the founders did manual things to get their first users. Etsy visiting craft fairs. Tinder going on a college tour. Jobs and Wozniak at the Home Brew Club. I could go on.
Struggling to get traction, the founders of @Airbnb flew to New York and visited their rental hosts. They realized the host were taking poor quality pictures. So they hired photographers. Not scalable. But it was exactly what they needed at the time.
5. Find the High Demand - It can be difficult to get users to try something new. @Uber found a way by launching during sporting events and concerts when lots of people all needed a cab at the same time.
Airbnb took a similar approach by launching at the 2008 Democratic National Convention where all the hotels were completely booked. Out of options, 600 people used Airbnb during the convention.
It’s hard to imagine the founders of unicorns and multi million dollar companies recruiting one user at a time. The truth is, that’s often how they got their first customers.
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