From 0 to 100 Paying Users: The Exact Threads Content Strategy I Used to Launch My SaaS

Getting your first 100 customers can feel like an impossible mountain to climb. You have a product you believe in, but no one knows it exists. With a budget of zero and no existing audience, where do you even start?

That was me a few months ago. I had just built the first version of bolta.ai, a scheduling tool for Threads, but I was stuck in the classic founder's trap: I was so busy building, I had no idea how to market.

Today, we have over 100 paying users. The surprising part? I got them all through a focused content strategy on a single platform: Threads. I didn't use ads, cold email, or complex funnels. I used a simple, three-phase content strategy that any founder can replicate. Here’s the exact playbook.

Phase 1: The Educator (Users 0-20)
Goal: Become the go-to expert on a single, painful problem.

Before I ever mentioned https://bolta.ai/ my only goal was to provide overwhelming value. I didn't just target "founders"; I targeted a micro-niche: founders who are struggling to stay consistent on social media.

My content for the first few weeks was purely educational. I shared everything I knew about growing an audience on Threads. I didn't hold anything back.

My posts looked like this:

Actionable Tips: "3 ways to write a hook that stops the scroll on Threads."
Simple Frameworks: "My 5-step process for turning one blog post into a week's worth of Threads content."  
Data-Backed Insights: "I analyzed 50 founder accounts on Threads. Here's the type of content that gets the most engagement."
Crucially, I spent more time in the comments of other people's posts than I did writing my own. I answered every question I could, offered feedback, and participated in the community. I wasn't trying to build an audience; I was trying to build a reputation as someone who was genuinely helpful. This is the most important step.

Phase 2: The Agitator (Users 21-50)
Goal: Make the audience feel the pain that your product solves.

Once I had built a small following of people who trusted my advice on Threads, I subtly shifted my content. I started talking less about what to post and more about the process of posting. This is where I began to "agitate" the problem.

I started sharing my own struggles, which I knew my target audience was also feeling:

"Spent two hours today just trying to get my posts for the week ready. As a solo founder, that's time I should be spending on the product."
"Woke up this morning and completely forgot to post. Consistency is so important, but it's a killer when you're juggling a dozen other tasks."
"Does anyone else have a graveyard of half-written drafts for social media? My notes app is a mess."
These posts were vulnerable and relatable. They weren't complaints; they were shared experiences. People would reply, "This is exactly my problem!" or "I feel this so much." I was building a shared understanding of the pain point without ever mentioning a solution. I was creating the demand.

Phase 3: The Architect (Users 51-100+)
Goal: Introduce your product as the inevitable solution to the problem.

Only after establishing my expertise and highlighting the pain point did I introduce bolta.ai. And I didn't do it with a big, flashy launch post. I did it by continuing my "build in public" journey.

My first mention of the product was framed as a solution to my own problem:

"I got so fed up with wasting time manually posting on Threads that I spent the weekend building a simple Chrome extension to let me schedule them in advance. It's saving me so much time. Wondering if anyone else would find this useful?"

The response was immediate. The people who had been following my journey and relating to my struggles were primed for the solution.

From there, my content became the ultimate case study for my own product:

I shared behind-the-scenes screenshots of me using bolta.ai to schedule my content.
I posted threads about the user feedback I was getting and the features I was building next.
I used the analytics from my tool to create data-driven posts about what was working in my content strategy.
The product became the hero of the story I was already telling. The call to action wasn't "Buy my tool." It was "Follow my journey of solving this problem." The sales happened as a natural byproduct of that journey.

This three-phase strategy Educate, Agitate, Architect—is how I found my first 100 customers. It was built on giving value first, building trust through transparency, and positioning my product as the tool that helped me do it all. If you have questions, I'll be in the comments.