How to find your first customers

Let’s dispel a myth straight up - you don’t need to raise money to get your first customers.

You should have customers before you go to market trying to raise money. Your job is to make it a no-brainer for investors to invest in you. Having customers is one very important part of that. 

Stop looking elsewhere - follow this process to land your first customers

You might read a few articles on this topic. And whilst there’s no right way to win your first customers, there are many different ways. It can feel overwhelming knowing where to begin.

So here’s what i’m proposing. Ignore the rest, and follow the steps we outline in this article. If you consume too much content on winning your first customers, it eventually all just becomes noise.

What you’re really looking for is a process to believe in. So let me come out and say it - you can, and should believe in this.

So let’s start with the main concept for this process: 

Your first customers should be a natural progression from validating your idea. 

While it may feel like getting your first customers is the most important goal for an early-stage founder, it’s a bit of a red herring.

Before you ask - yes I do like money. Lots of it. But if your goals are focused on long-term success, you’ll think differently about the speed you get your first customers.

If your first customers aren’t the right first customers they can suck the life out of your business. They can push you in the wrong direction.

So, if you want to follow this strategy, remember we’re prioritising long term goals over short term goals. Meaning we want a scalable, impactful business with strong product-market fit. We’re not just thinking about landing our first customer.

Our motto - Go slow to go fast. 

Going slow means spending more time at the early stages being open to changes to your idea. It means working closer to your ICP earlier and for longer, to find product-market fit before you start finding customers.

One of the most common reasons startups fail is because they don’t find a strong enough product-market fit. We’re not going to make that mistake. We’re going to spend the time early on to collect lots of feedback, iterate and only start monetising when we have strong signals of product-market fit.

So… how do you find your first customers? 

4 magical steps.

Step 1: Define your ICP
Step 2: Find people in your ICP to validate your idea
Step 3: Turn those people into design partners

Step 4: Turn those design partners into customers

Step 1: Define your ICP

You’ll need to start off by identifying your Ideal Customer Profile - ie who will care most about my idea? Who stands to benefit the most from my idea? We’ve got a full article here on how to define your ICP [link here].

Step 2: Find people in your ICP to validate your idea

Once you’ve defined your ICP, the next step is to test how your idea lands with people in that ICP. Ultimately, you want to be able to validate your idea. This is the first step towards product-market fit.

Below are some clear signs that our idea has been validated with our ICP.

1. Your ICP are in agreement that the problem you’ve identified is a problem for them
2. They agree that the problem is one they need to solve, better than they currently do
3. They agree that they’d be prepared to pay a reasonable amount to solve it
4. They see the solution you’ve identified as the best way to solve the problem

But before we can validate our ICP, we need to reach out to them, and speak with them.

First, do you know anybody that fits your ICP?

Start with people you know‍

Start with people you know and leverage your network. You’ll be surprised how far your network can take you. 

And even if your immediate network aren’t the contacts you need, they may know someone who is.

Here’s an example WhatsApp message you could use:

Hey [mate/hun], how are you? Do you know anyone who works as a [job title] in [industry]? I have a business idea and wanted to get some feedback on it

This message can also be used by people you’ve worked with too. 

If you need to, reach out to people you don’t know 

Communities‍

Communities are a great place to find people in your ICP without spending money on tools. Reddit is full of niche subreddits where i’m convinced you can find just about any people interested in a niche. Facebook groups, discord and slack communities are also really good places to look.

But the big question is, how do you meet people in these communities?

First, spend a week or two just commenting in the community. Add to the conversation, and lead with as much value as possible.

This is particularly good on Reddit, because you may notice that when you search on Google, it’s common for Reddit posts to appear at the top. In the long-term this could drive traffic to your profile and your website. 

If you’re looking to use communities to find and meet your ICP, here’s the process to follow:

Ask questions about the problem you're trying to solve.

What people do to solve it? How frustrating is it?

If people comment with interesting insights, DM them asking if they would they be open to jumping on a call for 15 mins to help me learn more about this problem.

Cold outreach

On the other side, you may have a very niche ICP where cold outreach is the best choice. That can work, but it can be tough. 

Tools like Apollo & Lemlist can help you source the contact information of your ICP if cold outreach is the way you want to go. 

Reaching out to someone cold is both a numbers game, and about perfecting your message. 

My advice? Flatter them. We all love to feel important and valued, even by a stranger. 

Here’s an example cold outreach email:

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Hey {{firstName}},

My name is _________, and I’ve just started a business (wish me luck!).

I’ve been reading your blog and was hoping I could talk to you about ________.

I’d like to get some honest feedback on my idea and I’d really value your thoughts.

From my research, it looks like you {{insert reason why they’re really good to interview about this topic}}. 

Are you free for an e-coffee? It would really be a big help. I’m available:

9:30am on Tuesday

3pm on Thursday

11:30am on Friday

Feel free to suggest another time if those don’t work!

Best wishes,

[Your name]

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Step 2: How to turn those people into design partners 

If you’re at step two, you need to have:

• Met 25+ people in your ICP
• Collected lots of quality feedback from them
• Validated that the problem you’re looking to solve for this group of people is painful enough that they would pay a reasonable amount to solve it

Now the next step is to turn some of the people you’ve interviewed into design partners.

What is a design partner?

A design partner is often one of the first users/customers who provides valuable feedback to help improve the product/services. 

Design partners are typically early believers in the vision you set out. They are usually compensated by this early trust by using the product/service for free or at a largely discounted rate. 

Design partners are the bridge between your idea and selling it to the market. When you have only your idea, there are a lot of assumptions you’re making. Design partners help you test these assumptions and give you the insight to find ways around the problems you discover.

Working with design partners gives you the platform to find and prove strong product-market fit. 

How to find and choose your design partners

Your pipeline for design partners should already be full. After interviewing your ICP at the last step, you now have a group of people that you can target to be your design partner.

2-5 design partners is ideal. 

The criteria for a good design partner is:

• A person that right now has the problem you want to solve  
• They’ve tried to solve the problem before but not been successful 
• The key person in an organisation that would make the buying decision, or at least on the buying committee 
• Would use the product/service you’re building 
• Reflects the type of company you want to target
• You have a good relationship and they want to see you succeed
• They can make the time to talk to you for at least 1 hour a month
  
  

How to close a design partner‍

Your first call with your ICP is all about getting feedback, and learning about their challenges.

Since then, you’ve probably taken this feedback to create an MVP.

Now, if you think somebody is a good fit to become a design partner, the next step is to get them on another call to gauge their interest, show them what you’ve built,  clearly outline what they’ll get, and whats expected. This is your first sales pitch.

Here’s an email template you can use after your first call: 

Hey {{firstName}},

It was great to chat in {{month}}! Thank you again - your insight on {{topic}} is invaluable. It really helped me figure out {{get specific}}. We’ve now built the product based on your feedback.

I know you mentioned about trying to {{desired outcome}}. I’d love to see if {{your idea}} can help you, totally free of charge.

Are you free to jump on a call to discuss more?   

I’m free: 

Monday @ 2pm

Wednesday @ 10am

Friday @ 3pm

Have a great day {{name}} and speak soon :)

Best wishes,

[Your name]

P.s. {{mention something personal about them}}

If you don’t get a response, don’t be afraid to give them a call. Calling is still far more effective for progressing relationships and sales conversations than any other method. And it’s being used less and less.

Setup the agreement

You’ll want to present how you see the design partnership working. Something like this:

If your prospective design partners aren’t as keen and don’t want to become a design partner, then this is a red flag. Either a) you haven’t built up a good enough relationship with them for them to want to do this, or b) the problem you solve isn’t important enough to them.

If this is a burning problem for them, and they trust you, then while you may receive a few no’s, ultimately you’ll be able to find 5 design partners fairly easily.

If they do agree, then you’ll want to send them a contract, and to send them an NDA to sign. We always recommend early-stage founders work with Seedlegals on these essential documents. 

Step four: How to turn design partners into your first customers

Ask for a case study‍

During the design partnership you’ll likely be receiving lots of feedback to iterate your product. Once the design partnership is over, it’s back to sales mode.

You’ll want to jump on a call and interview them, learning about the impact of your product on the problem you were trying to solve.

Hopefully there’s been a meaningful impact which you can highlight in a case study. If there hasn’t, then you’ll need to learn why, and how you can iterate the product to do so. And find more design partners until you get it right.

A case study helps you in so many ways. 

First, you’re able to show your design partner the impact your product has made. Hopefully the impact is quantifiable. This makes it much easier to then get sign-off on a budget line, and to start charging them.

Say hello to your first customers. 

A detailed case study also shows prospective new customers that you’re trustworthy, and have clear proof points of success.

Summary‍

So, in summary, early-stage founders can find their first customers by building a network of individuals in your ICP to give you feedback on your idea, invite them to use your product for free to help you create the best product for that ICP. Then, once your product is solving the problem you set out to solve for design partners, you can start charging for it. Publish case studies to then attract other ICP customers.

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