24 Strategies to Win First Customers

"It's offered 100% free to non-profits... You want to get a customer, make it free... They just ask the donor... 'If you want our service to continue, donate.'"

• Zeffy provided a free fundraising platform for non-profits.
• They monetized through optional donations from users.

"These guys created... an experiment shop... It was a way to run experiments exceptionally quickly... One of those experiments became Spellbook... and helps you draft faster."

• Spellbook's founders tested ideas until they found one that resonated.
• Persistent iteration can lead to successful product discovery.

"If somebody were to go to you and say, 'Hey, how would you like to make money on the 50% of people that have ad blockers where you make $0?'... He went after an obvious problem where there was no way he wasn't gonna get a customer if he could build it."

• Blockthrough addressed a clear pain point for publishers.
• Solving obvious problems can make customer acquisition easier.

"Any sane normal person... would just send out a text... But Nabeel just won't take no for an answer... convinces the pilot to let him off the plane... and makes the meeting in person."

• Nabeel from Forma demonstrated extreme dedication to meet clients.
• Going the extra mile can set you apart and win crucial deals.

"They found that there were people... using it not once a week... but every day for hours... What they realized was that these people were agents... so they decided to go all in on these power users."

• ApplyBoard pivoted to serve agents after noticing heavy usage.
• Focus on your most engaged users to find product-market fit.

"When the big behemoth that you attach yourself to grows... that obviously is a huge tailwind for growth... They literally just put out an app into that store... and at that point... they had an asset because they had an audience."

• Rewind partnered with Shopify, benefiting from its growth.
• Integrations can amplify reach and accelerate customer acquisition.

"What they do is they help e-commerce merchants find checkout errors... Instead of sending out normal cold emails... they just go, they audit a website, they find the errors... and basically saying... 'we found this error, it's probably costing you thousands.'"

• Noibu showcased actual errors to potential clients.
• Providing tangible evidence can prompt action from prospects.

"We are going to pick the 25 absolute best restaurants... and we're just gonna add them to our app... We're just gonna add all of them, and they did... People were like, wow, these restaurants are available for delivery."

• Rappi added top restaurants without prior agreements to seed their platform.
• They manually fulfilled orders to delight customers.

"Literally for the first few months, the only people who posted anything on Reddit were the founders themselves and their friends and family."

• Reddit's founders populated the site themselves to simulate activity.
• Creating content yourself can kickstart community engagement.

"He literally offered to pay those first few customers... He said, 'I'm so confident... If you sign up, I'm gonna pay you $10 next month just for signing up.'"

• Andrew from Take 22 paid initial customers to showcase his product's value.
• Offering upfront incentives can overcome skepticism and attract early adopters.