How to get your first customers: what 9 founders actually did
By Maya · Updated
How do you get your first customers?
Start with one channel where people are already asking for what you built, not a launch. Will Baker made his first $1,000 to $2,000 replying to Reddit posts, Nevo David got 200,000+ views per open source release, An Nayal grew Flamme past 200,000 users with short videos, and Rob Hallam got a $3,000 client from one honest tweet.
Answered by 9 founders on BuildingNow
Will Baker
App founder
Answer people already asking, on Reddit
Will's gym app rated a physique from a photo. He went to r/fitness and r/gym, found people posting photos and asking for ratings, and replied with the rating his app produced, watermark included. He estimates his first $1,000 to $2,000 came from this, with no ad spend. The catch: that kind of promotion eventually got him banned.
“Find people like posting their physiques, asking for ratings, literally asking for what my app does.”
Nevo David
Founder, Postiz
Give Reddit something it wants: open source
Reddit dislikes self promotion but welcomes a new release of a free, open source tool. Nevo says every Postiz release got at least 200,000 to 300,000 views, because people were waiting for the next version. He also dropped the word marketing: the same product pitched as marketing for developers got puke emojis.
“People actually were waiting for this, like they wanted to see this.”
An Nayal
Founder, Flamme
Make short videos yourself, on new accounts
An grew Flamme past 200,000 users with short videos on brand new accounts built around the niche, not with big influencers. He says founders should make the first videos themselves to learn what holds attention and what brings signups, then bring in creators once a format works.
“Views do not matter for a brand. What matters is how many conversions are you getting out of those views?”
Martin Donadieu
Founder, Capgo
Give away the small tool your customers need
Capgo was stuck near $3,000 MRR. A stranger who audited Martin's SEO found people were finding Capgo through the open source plugins he had fixed and branded. Martin went from about 20 plugins to more than 150, and says daily discovery went up 10x.
“The number of people discovering Capgo by day, like, did 10x because of that, because of the plugins.”
Rob Hallam
Cofounder, Super X
Say you're available, in public
After a year with no income, Rob posted that he was available for hire. Someone told him to call it an agency, he launched it while the post had attention, and his first client paid $3,000 for a month. After that, posting his wins on X brought the rest of his clients to him.
“I made a tweet saying I've made no money in 12 months. If anyone wants to hire me as a freelance developer, let me know.”
Dylan Zhang
Founder, Pond
Show a demo and test the message with small ads
Dylan built Pond to 300K+ users. Starting again, he would build one core feature, post a demo of the product itself, and run 5 to 10 ads with different messages to see what people respond to. Then he would find 5 to 10 people who love it and build with them.
“That is the biggest mistake that first-time founders will make is they do too much guessing.”
KP
Head of Community, Netlify
Keep your first ten customers close
KP's advice for the first paying customers: give one of them a genuine shout out every day and try to send them business. Almost nobody gets that, so they stay. It's also the part a copycat can't take from you.
“They cannot copy the hustle. They cannot copy the DMs. They cannot copy Zoom calls.”
Selene Lee
Founder, SocialCrawl
Be loud everywhere, even if you sell B2B
Selene sells SocialCrawl to businesses and got banned on more subreddits than she can count. Still, when she talked to five of its enterprise customers, four had found it through Reddit. She says B2C marketing and B2B sales are blurring, so exposure matters more than the textbook channel.
“Four out of five found us through Reddit.”
Elitza Vasileva
Founder, own.page
Launch on Product Hunt with a community behind you
Elitza built a community on X for a year, found her hunter there, prepared every asset days ahead so the launch got featured, and launched during a hacker residency so other founders backed her. As a solo founder against a big team, own.page finished #2 and got about 2,000 signups in three weeks.
“And within three weeks, in total, like 2000 registrations on my platform came from Product Hunt.”
Where they agree
- Pick one channel and go deep before you add another.
- Go where people already ask for the result, instead of announcing a launch.
- Judge a channel by signups, not by views or likes.
- It takes repetition: An's videos, Martin's 150 plugins and KP's eight years all compounded.
More questions
What's the fastest way to get your first customers with no budget?
Find people who are already asking for the result your product gives, and answer them directly. Will Baker did this on Reddit and made his first $1,000 to $2,000 without ads. Rob Hallam posted on X that he was available for hire and got a $3,000 first client.
Should you run paid ads for your first customers?
Only as a small test to find your message. Dylan Zhang would run 5 to 10 ads to stop guessing, but Will Baker's advice with only $1,000 is not to start with ads, and Frederick James says profit almost never shows up in the first $500 to $1,000.
Does building in public get you customers?
Rarely on its own. Nevo David says posting progress on X won't get you to 100 trials a week, while KP and Rob Hallam got real results from years of sharing useful wins. The full answer, with seven founders, is on the building in public page.
Which channel should I start with?
It depends on what you're building, your budget, your time, and whether you'll show your face on camera. The free 60-second quiz on BuildingNow picks one channel and sends a 7-day plan based on what these founders did.
Which of these fits you?
Answer 5 quick questions and get the one channel to start with, plus a 7-day plan from the founder who did it. Free.
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