Where did you find your first customer?
I’ve been a lurker on IH for quite a while now, but only recently did I start my first business, Taskwise. It seems like there’s plenty of founders detailing exactly how they blew up their mailing list or made a huge deal with some company (which is great content, by the way), but what puzzles me is how to get from Zero to One. In my mind, at least, it seems so straightforward in choosing the right direction once you have some momentum. Furthermore, it seems like things would be far more sober and clear once you have a few dozen customers or so. But what do you do when you have no momentum whatsoever? Does giving out your product for free help you get feedback? What about cold emailing? Friends and family?
In essence, my question is: How did you acquire your first few customers while handling the uncertainty and doubt of bootstrapping?
Cheers and stay healthy!
"Furthermore, it seems like things would be far more sober and clear once you have a few dozen customers or so."
False haha, things become a lot harder. You have so many random customers that you can't pick a pattern and it is confusing.
For https://versoly.com/ we had to build enough trust in the market. To do that we launched https://saaspages.xyz/ and that drove traffic back to Versoly.
There are a few ways to get your first customer
I can definitely see how things could get complicated as you grow. As for finding an audience, it seems like that's a pretty common and effective strategy. I assume the hardest part is building your audience though.