Getting Your First Users
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUy3Lu0KJZs
Here are some of my thoughts about getting your first users:
- Find where your users are.
- A Forum, meetup, or Product Hunt
- Brute Force it
- Go talk to people
- Send the emails
- Make the phone calls
- Set up the meetings
- Your just going to have to do the hard work and grind it out
- Focus on validation rather than sales
- Just try to get feedback from people
- Not trying to sell them on it
- Tell them your story
- Ask how they use similar products
- Maybe some will be interested in the process and become your first users!
If you want to see the video I made about this, you can check it out here! I try to bring in some of my learnings from my own Startup www.coffeepass.io
Great advice/thoughts, thanks. Any thoughts on first users for enterprise software? My startup, Lakebed, offers data lakes to companies for business intelligence analysis, creating data dashboards, data driven decision making, etc. So the person making the buying decision is likely a CIO/CTO, CEO, or board.
I'm communicating with some non-profits to build dashboards for them as test cases. I'm thinking about sending a box of chocolates and a nice handwritten note to CIOs at a few target orgs. Or I was wondering about sending an invite to beer on me on chat data.
Obviously, step 1 is pay someone to make the website look professional, step 2 is get a free sample up and running. Additional thoughts would be appreciated.
Are there any meetups or physical groups you can go to to start getting to know people that are part of the company? Maybe it doesn't have to be the CEO directly. in-person contacts will definitely help with companies.
I think your idea of sending something could work. You never know. You may just have to try multiple things and it could take some time to get to them. The hard thing with companies is they are a slow moving ship.
We got our first shop by the owner being related to me (My sister-in-law). Its nice to have relationships with people that can help get things going.
Thanks,my thoughts too. I'm taking an online course in startup marketing in hopes it might have some ideas.
As you said, try lots and see what works.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
Really great advice!
I found sharing as much value as possible in existing communities to be an effective way to acquire initial users.
By taking the time to personally DM I was able to learn more about the problems they were facing.
That sounds like a great way!
Throughout the initial phases, I also created my own Facebook group and grew a modest community.
By using an existing platform, it was easier to acquire users and encourage conversations around a relevant topic.
After I shipped my MVP, I took the time to DM each member of the group, encouraging them to migrate to the new platform.
If you were interested, I shared a recent car study about the stagey here: https://clickthrough.marketing/post/190819-Building-A-Community-With-Facebook-Groups
Really enjoyed the video too!
Nice! That seems like a great strategy. Any way to de-risk an idea and get feedback is a great way to go. Especially if its cheap. Nice job on the write-up!
Definitely. And thanks!