Got my first paying customer while eating pizza on my couch
Two weeks ago I launched my SaaS. Yesterday I was sitting on my couch eating pizza when my phone buzzed.
Someone I'd never talked to, never DMed, never seen in any community I'm active in - just bought my product.
I still don't know exactly how he found me. And honestly, that's the most interesting part of this whole thing.
The backstory
Before this, I spent 3 months building an AI app that went nowhere. Zero revenue. Couldn't get payment processors to work with me, the niche was brutally competitive, and I was burning out trying to make something happen.
So I changed my approach. Instead of spending months perfecting something, I built this new product in 2 days and launched it half-polished. Figured I'd learn more from real users than from tweaking features nobody asked for.
What I did for marketing
No ads. No budget. Just content.
I started posting build-in-public updates on X. Shared screenshots, small wins, even the boring stuff. Maybe 10-15 posts over two weeks.
I wrote a few Reddit posts in founder communities. Nothing viral, just sharing what I was learning.
And I went hard on SEO. My blog has about 25 articles now, all targeting low-competition keywords. 2,000 impressions in Google Search Console so far. No idea if that's where this customer came from, but it's possible.
What I learned from this one sale
The honest answer is: I don't know what worked. Could have been a Reddit post. Could have been SEO. Could have been someone seeing a tweet and checking it out days later.
But here's what I do know - I spent 3 months on something with zero feedback from the market. This time I spent 2 days building, 2 weeks marketing, and someone I've never met decided it was worth paying for.
That tells me I was doing it backwards before. Build fast, get it out there, let the market tell you if you're onto something.
What's next
Trying to figure out where this customer actually came from so I can do more of it. Going to keep pushing on SEO and content. Will report back when I hit 10 customers - or when I learn what's actually driving signups.
Anyone else had that experience where your first sale came from somewhere unexpected? Curious how you figured out what was actually working.
Nice! I think you are on the right track to ship fast and spent more time on distribution. I would just your customer how he found you, but also engage to get feedback. These insights might be very useful. With one customer you will never know 'what works', but you will get insights on what convinced him, maybe niching down, ... Ask if he knows other people who might benefit. How to reach this kind of audience, where they hang out, ...
Thanks for this great advice. I definitely need to engage more with my users. Do you know if it's ok to contact them directly by email?
Hey Adrien, congrats on your first customer. I'm currently stuck a 1 myself. I'm interested in your SEO approach. Did you use AI to write all those articles in 2 weeks? Does it matter if it's well written (i.e., not AI slop) or just for the keywords?
Hey Jesse, more users will come, it takes time sometimes. I made an articles on my approach on X: https://x.com/adrien_brbr/status/2015817697666163031
Also I found Claude extremely good at writing articles. I can give you my prompt if you want?
I'll read your article, and no thanks on the prompt.
Can you ask them? Asking a user how they found out about you is not uncommon. Maybe you can give them a discount on a next purchase for their feedback?
That's a great idea! Do you know if I can contact them by email?
why not? be honest, say you're the founder, looking for feedback. Re-assure them that you're a real person, that they're not signed up to any newsletters and that you're looking for feedback on how people find you? They might simply ignore the email but companies ask for feedback and contact their customers all the time.
Thank you for this advice, you're right, I need to start to contact them
The "I don't know what worked" part is so real. At this stage, attribution is basically impossible - someone sees your tweet, forgets about it, Googles something related two weeks later, finds your blog post, and then checks out the product. The trail goes cold.
What I've seen work: just keep doing all of it until something shows clear signal. Once you hit 10-20 customers you'll start seeing patterns (same referrer, similar job titles, same problem they mention). That's when you can double down.
Also the 2 days building vs 3 months building lesson is one a lot of us learn the hard way. Congrats on the sale - the first one always feels different.
Thanks for your message Jack! I will wait 10-20 customers and try to see patern, also I need to start contact them, just to engage and understand them a bit better.
Thanks again for your message