First users don't all come from the same place

When we talk to founders about to launch, most have one plan: post on socials, maybe some SEO, and hope Product Hunt goes well on the day. Fair enough, those are the obvious ones.

But the founders who actually get traction early usually stack a few different sources at once. Some get their first users from niche communities where their exact problem gets discussed daily. Others get a few dozen from cold outreach to people who fit perfectly, even if it's slow and unscalable. Some get lucky with one good post that resonates with the right crowd.

The one people forget about, or assume isn't for them yet, is creators. Most think it means paying someone a few hundred dollars upfront and hoping for the best, which feels risky when you have zero users and less budget. That assumption is why a lot of early founders skip it entirely.

That's actually the gap we built Aproov for. Instead of cash only, founders can offer free lifetime access or a rev share, so a creator promotes the product because they believe in it, not just because they got paid. No upfront risk, no guessing if it'll be worth it.

What's been your actual first channel, the one that brought real users, not just traffic?