How to get your first 100 users
Building got easy. Getting anyone to use what you built didn't. The good news is that the first 100 users don't come from a growth hack; they come from you, one conversation at a time.
Accept that you have to go and get them
Paul Graham's most quoted startup advice is to "do things that don't scale", and the core of it is blunt: "You can't wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them" (Paul Graham). His example is Stripe's founders, who, instead of sending a link, would ask for your laptop and set you up on the spot, a habit known at Y Combinator as the "Collison installation" (Paul Graham).
Aim for a few people who love it
Graham puts the choice this way: "you can either build something a large number of people want a small amount, or something a small number of people want a large amount. Choose the latter" (Paul Graham). Your first 100 users should be the second kind. Ten people who'd be upset if your app disappeared are worth more than a thousand sign-ups who never come back.
The playbook
- Write down who it's for in one sentence. Not "small businesses": "freelance designers who send invoices every week". If you can't name them, you can't find them.
- List where they already talk. Specific subreddits, Discords, Slack groups, forums, LinkedIn circles, local meetups.
- Show up as a person first. Answer questions, help, comment. Reddit's own guidance sums it up: "It's perfectly fine to be a Redditor with a website, it's not okay to be a website with a Reddit account" (Reddit).
- Reach out one by one. Message people who described the problem you solve. Offer to set them up yourself.
- Launch where makers gather. A launch on the right platforms brings a burst of early users and feedback.
- Talk to every user. Ask what almost stopped them, what they expected, and who else they know with the problem.
Give people something to see
Most people decide in seconds whether to look closer. A short video of what your app does makes every post, message and launch land better. Teasr makes one from your app's address in under 10 minutes, from €39.