How to Acquire Your First Customers

In less than 18 months, Onward went from zero to a $5m annual run-rate. Going from 0 to our first 10 customers was the hardest. Here’s exactly how I’d get my first 10 customers (and build a system to land the next 100): ~~ Step 1: Choose a narrow niche At Onward, we focused on high-GMV DTC brands already using shipping protection. Why? • They felt the pain we were solving. • Switching costs were low. • They were desperate for differentiation. Your ideal first customers = high pain, low friction. == Step 2: Sell before you build Before we wrote a single line of code, I validated our concept. I emailed 10 brand founders and asked: 1. Does this problem resonate? 2. Would you pay for a solution? 3. Could I follow up with a mockup? Half said yes—and 3 verbally agreed to sign on if we built it (!) == Step 3: Founder-led sales In the early days, nobody sells better than the founder. I did cold emails, Zoom demos, and calls myself. Why? • You’ll get unfiltered feedback. • You’ll hear objections directly. • You’ll learn how to position your product. Iterate fast and stay close to customers. == Step 4: Use your network Your first customers aren’t random—they’re people who already trust you. At Onward, I tapped: • Fellow founders from YPO. • Former colleagues. • Partners I’d worked with at StackCommerce. Warm intros are your secret weapon—don’t be afraid to ask. == Step 5: Create scarcity Instead of pitching to everyone, we positioned Onward as an “invite-only” beta. This: • Made brands feel special. • Gave us time to refine the product. • Built demand (we had a waitlist within 3 months). Scarcity works—use it strategically. == Step 6: Obsess over outcomes Early customers don’t just want a product—they want results. For our first 10 brands, we overdelivered: • Weekly calls to optimize results. • Custom features just for them. • Quick fixes for any issue. Happy customers = referrals and case studies. == Step 7: Build a repeatable system Getting the first 10 was manual—but that’s OK. The goal was to build a playbook for scaling: • Narrow niche → Expand. • Cold outreach → Warm intros. • Founder sales → Hire sales reps. Turn early wins into a scalable machine. == Getting your first 10 customers is hard, but it doesn’t have to be complicated: 1. Pick a niche. 2. Sell before you build. 3. Use your network. 4. Overdeliver. Follow Josh Payne for more startup lessons, leadership insights, and scaling advice.

I’ve gone $0-1M ARR three times as CEO. Here’s how you find your first 10 customers: 1. Start with warm intros from your network Forget cold email, ads, or other “scalable” tactics. You haven’t earned the right to scale yet. You haven’t proven that what you do even works—let alone that it scales. And you’re not ready to hire a Head of Sales or even a rep. In the zero-to-10 phase, you are the best (and only) seller that works. Your early traction will come from warm intros. No network? Then borrow one. Lean on your investors. Tap advisors. Ask for 10 intros, not advice. Your first 50–100 customers can all come from warm referrals. Save “scalable” for later—when the model’s proven, you’ve got budget, and your personal + investor networks are fully tapped. 2. Find your “1 in 100” buyer Most founders waste time chasing decision-makers. But your first 10 customers won’t come from job titles—they’ll come from personalities. You need believers. People who want to be first. The ones who light up when they see something new. The ones who forward it to 5 teammates, unprompted. These buyers are rare. But they exist in every market. They’re not just early adopters. They’re internal disruptors—with just enough political capital to get your weird, half-baked product through the finish line. They’ll move fast. They’ll tell you the truth. And they’ll help you scale, not just sell. I call them change agents. They’re startup gold. 3. Be radically transparent If your product is fully baked, you started selling too late. Early customers know they’re buying something unfinished. So don’t pretend you’ve got more than you do. Lead with the problem you’re solving. Show them what’s real—and what isn’t built yet. The right change agents want to co-create the future. 4. Ask your early customers to help. After the sale, stay close and learn from your customers. They’ll understand their problems way better than you do. Listen to how they talk about their problem, your solution, and it’s benefits. Take notes on their product usage and feature requests, listening for the things more customers may want. Your best source to find customers 4-10 is customers 1-3. They’ll know who at the next company will want to solve the same problem. Have any questions about going $0-1M? Or finding your first 10 customers? AMA in the comments 👇

For a startup, there’s nothing harder than getting your first 10 customers. Here’s how we got ours ⬇️ A lot of early stage founders reach out to us asking how we got our first few customers at Clueso (YC W23). While it may vary from product to product, here are some things that worked for us: 1. Warm Intros 💯 - Reach out to your network – investors, friends, family – for intros to the right people in your target companies. Warm intros build trust from the start, which is really helpful when you’re very early in your journey. - Two of our first 10 customers came through warm intros! One was through an investor intro to their portfolio company and the other one was through an intro from one of our customers. 2. Leverage your alumni networks 🤝🏻 - If you're part of any accelerator programs or University entrepreneur groups, reach out to fellow founders if they’re a good fit. They will surely try to help you out! - In our case, we were able to utilise the Y Combinator and Indian Institute of Technology, Madras alumni network to get 4 out of our first 10 customers! 3. Stay active in relevant communities 👥 - Join WhatsApp, Slack, Reddit, Discord communities relevant to your domain where your target audience hangs out. Be helpful, engage, and spot opportunities to showcase your product’s value. - One of our first 10 customers was through a whatsapp group I’m a part of. 4. Build in public 📢 - Stay active on LinkedIn and X. Continuously connect with relevant folks. Post things that are helpful to your audience, product updates, and learnings from your personal experience. - My cofounders and I try being active on LinkedIn by posting regularly. It has been working well for us and we get demo calls booked regularly through our LinkedIn posts. - Two of our first 10 customers came from our product/feature launches on LinkedIn! 5. Personalized Outreach 📤 - I used to manually go through hiring JDs of open customer success/education roles at companies to see if the job responsibilities included creating customer education materials. After that, I would reach out to them with how Clueso could help. - One of our first ten customers came through this channel. It took us close to 3 months to get our first 10 customers! Now, we’re onboarding close to 40 new customers a month. And at much higher contract values too! Keep pushing – with every new customer, there are new learnings and it gets slightly easier to close the next one! 💪 Here’s a picture from our YC batch event last year. We all still catch up every month to share our progress and learn from what’s working for others. What an amazing bunch of people! Kriti Arora Mitch Patin Jacob Shadbolt Rishabh Srivastava Akash Anand Medha Basu #startups #saas #sales

Day 6/30 of the Idea to Revenue Mentorship: The biggest mistake I see? Rushing to Facebook ads before talking to your own network. Your first 5 customers aren't strangers on social media. They're already in your phone. Today we taught a simple truth: Start with who you know. One participant resisted: "But my network isn't my target market." I asked her to list 10 contacts. By number 7, she found three potential customers. Here's why your network matters: They'll give you brutal honesty. No sugar-coating. They'll tell you exactly why they won't buy. And if they do buy? Your next 10 customers are one intro away. We had participants message 5 people today. Just a simple: "I'm building X for Y. Can I get your thoughts?" The responses were a gold mine: "I'd never pay for that, but if you added X..." "This is exactly what I need. When can I buy?" "I know someone who desperately needs this." One hard truth emerged: If you can't find 5 potential customers in your network, you might be in the wrong market. Better to discover this on Day 6 than Day 60. Question: How many potential customers are already in your contacts? Day 6 complete. 24 days to revenue. P.S. The participant who sold to a friend first? They tend to scale fastest in the long term. Trust compounds.

The real secret to early-stage (0 to 1) startup growth? Forget the fancy demand strategies, funnels, and positioning statements for a moment. (*Gasp* I know. Stay with me.) Start with this instead: → Talk to potential customers → Sell your solution → Make them successful → Learn & repeat Here's why I always recommend prioritizing selling before marketing. When you're in the trenches selling and delivering, you naturally discover: → Who actually needs your solution → What messaging resonates with them → Which problems are worth solving → How to find more customers like them Sales conversations and customer fulfillment are the best ways to understand your go-to-market foundations––the stuff you can then scale with marketing. Phase 1: Sell and learn Phase 2: Build your marketing engine Too many founders try to skip straight to Phase 2. Don't make that mistake. The foundations of great marketing are built on the insights you gain from those early customer wins. Focus on revenue and happy customers first. The rest will follow. --- I had a great conversation about this (and more) with Eric Eden on the Remarkable Marketing Podcast recently. Check it out and let me know what you think. #startupgrowth #b2bmarketing