Any first time founders here?

Growth has never been more difficult, I run AI marketing agency, clients happy, working on AI agent for content intelligence, all look good right?

but growth has never been harder, few years ago lead generation was easier, but now everything seems like it is out of place, the market is very dynamic and you need to keep pace or else you will fall behind.

I want to hear from founders, how did they manage to get their first 5 paying clients, share your journey, success story or a failure you learned from.