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18 Comments

How did you get your last 10 users?

For me:

Posting on a FB group. I basically asked a question (without posting my URL) and asked people to comment (got around 70 comments). Then I commented on each post with the link and got around 8-10 signups.

  1. 10

    Here's a meta answer (from my Zero to Users research and analyzing 650+ founder interviews) on how (in general) companies get their "last X users", depending on the stage they're at:

    1. Companies that were pre-MVP got their last-X users by being active mainly on communities where they audience is (subReddits, FB Groups, niche forums and so on). Also launching on PH, HackerNews. Basically, they were using "spike-y" channels.

    2. Companies that got some initial traction but haven't got to $10k+ got the last-X users (in general) using somewhat more scalable methods (having a cold email strategy that consistently worked, establishing smaller win-win partnerships with non-competitive companies in the similar niche, finding high-intent/low or medium comp. AdWords keywords)

    3. $10k+ companies got their last-X users by using really scalable channels that take months to work (but once they start working, they're pretty sustainable). Meaning, these companies got their last-X users by ranking on high-intent SEO terms, on AdWords where they knew that they could spend $x and within X months they customer would be profitable for them, etc.

    Again, there are always exceptions, but this is a general pattern I've noticed. Hope it helped :)

    1. 1

      I can vouch for #1 (going through it now) and #2 (what I’m planning to do!)

  2. 3

    That was a smart move. Questions and polls often work well when it comes to raising people awarness.
    Our last 10 users are mostly from Google Ads and GitHub marketplace. We are implementing new organic and referral strategies to get more users for free. We are expanding our network by sharing our experience and ask questions.

    1. 2

      This is interesting. I had seen github marketplace but wasn't sure it works. Is your product open source?
      Thanks for sharing.

      1. 1

        Our project is not open source per say. We do have Open Source components (APIs, libraries we developed for the community such as Cloudenvoy: a Ruby gem relying on Google Cloud Pub/Sub https://www.keypup.io/blog/gcp-pub-sub-with-ruby-on-rails ) but the core smartness of our platform is not open source.

  3. 1

    Last 50 or so paying customers from my AppSumo lifetime deal for my Twitter Growth Tool.

    All I really did was send it out to my email list of ~1,000, plus some odd Twitter DMs here and there.

  4. 1

    I reached out to local publications in the area and was featured on a half page in one magazine in their next months copy. This brought a slow spike in traffic and signups as they were delivered and readers learned about my business.
    When reaching out to publications, I recommend doing much of the work for them by writing your own version of the story. It is more interesting for them to read and if they decide to write their own story about it, they will use much of your content - putting you in control of the narrative.

  5. 1

    All of our members are from IH for join.coulf.com — a community of indie product makers and founders.

  6. 1

    I would say:

    • 2 Organic requests based on Twitter
    • 3 by Direct Messages on Twitter
    • 2 Cold reach on Linkedin
    • 2 Public Posts on YC Forum (similar to this one)
    • 1 from Social Circle

    If you are interested in getting started to get traffic from Social Media, please kindly take a look at my service and schedule a FREE coaching.

  7. 1

    I got no users from facebook even with ads .. Lot of money wasted, I got my most of the users from twitter & IndieHackers

  8. 1

    spammed them on twitter ...LOL..wouldn't recommend it though..

  9. 1

    Might be a more expensive route but paid advertising (It’s a consumer app).

    Fortunately many yearly signups so I’ve recouped my spend on the users that have signed up so far!

  10. 1

    That's actually pretty smart idea @nitrow. For app.ruttl.com, I was able to get the last 10 users through email marketing to potential customers in my linkedin network.

  11. 1

    Reached out to close friends to beta test and provide feedback. Will exhaust my network before expanding to social media. Noah Kagan - the founder of AppSumo - has a great video on how to get your first 1000 users if anyones interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ5BDsI9vDA

    1. 2

      One thing you have to be careful about with this approach is the “niceness bias”. There are two specific things to watch out for:

      1. users who only respond with good comments (because they’re your close friend and don’t want to hurt your feelings), lulling you into a false sense of security that the product is good

      2. thise who go overboard in their comments, because their your close friend and feel obligated to do a proper job.

      The niceness bias doesn’t appear usually if these contacts and close friends have to pay for the product.

      1. 2

        You're absolutely right!

        My logic is to seek users in an inward-outward fashion, starting from close contacts to strangers and beyond, but a risk with this is definitely what you mentioned.

        One thing I've noticed with talking to people I know is it can actually be more intimidating in a sense, because the fear of being judged can be present with people who actually know you, whereas that doesn't really exist with people who know nothing about you.

        1. 2

          In regards to the niceness bias, I try and setup ways for certain feedback to be anonymous, so close friends can feel like they can be transparent without the fear of offending or hurting my feelings

    2. 1

      That's an awesome, concise video. Would definitely agree with 'hand-to-hand' marketing for getting the first 50 customers every project I've worked on.

      It's higher touch at first but also a great opportunity to learn more about your target audience and customers.

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