You get your first 10 customers one by one, by hand. You talk to people directly, help them personally and do things that would be impossible with a thousand customers. Ads, automation and "growth hacks" come later. At the start, they mostly don't work.
That's not just my opinion. It's one of the most famous pieces of advice in the startup world, and the companies you use every day started exactly like this.
Why are the first customers the hardest to get?
Because at the start you have nothing that makes people trust you. No reviews, no testimonials, no one who has heard of you. Every new customer is a stranger taking a risk on you.
That's why the usual tricks fail at this stage. An ad sends people to a page from someone they've never heard of, and most of them leave. People buy what feels familiar, as I explain in Why Do Good Products Fail? At the beginning, the only way to become familiar is to show up in person.
What does "do things that don't scale" mean?
Paul Graham is one of the most respected people in the startup world. He co-founded Y Combinator, the program that helped launch Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit and Dropbox, and he has seen thousands of businesses go from zero to something. In 2013 he wrote an essay that sums up the best advice he gives founders in four words: Do Things That Don't Scale.
"Scale" means something that works the same way with ten customers or a million, like an ad or an automatic email. Graham's point is that new businesses don't take off by themselves. The founders make them take off, by doing things by hand that look silly or inefficient. Things they could never do with a million customers, but that are exactly what works when you have none.
His favorite examples:
- Airbnb. In 2009 almost nobody was booking their New York listings, and the photos were terrible. Graham told them to go there themselves. The founders flew to New York, rented a $500 camera and went door to door taking professional photos of their hosts' apartments. Bookings for those listings doubled.
- Stripe. When someone said "sounds interesting, I'll try it later", the founders, Patrick and John Collison, answered: "give me your laptop". Then they set up the product right there. People at Y Combinator started calling it the "Collison installation".
- Wufoo. This small company that made online forms sent every new customer a handwritten thank-you note. A big company could never do that. A tiny one can, and people remember it.
The best part of Graham's idea is that being small stops being a weakness. A big company can't knock on doors or write you a personal note. You can. At the start, that's your biggest advantage.
Does this work if you're starting from zero?
Yes, and it's often the only thing that works. One founder shared his story on Indie Hackers, a community of people building small online businesses. For two months he had literally zero customers. He posted on X and got 3 likes, all from his mom. His Product Hunt launch got buried. He spent $200 on Google Ads and got zero sign-ups.
Then he changed one thing. Instead of announcing his product, he started searching Reddit for threads where people were describing the exact problem his product solved, and replied to them one by one. No ads, no tricks. About 100 conversations over three months turned into 53 paying customers.
He didn't find a magic channel. He did the slow, manual thing that the broadcast channels couldn't do for him.
Where do you find your first 10 customers?
- People you already know. Not to ask for favors, but to find the ones who actually have the problem you solve. Ask them who else they know with it.
- Online communities where your buyers talk. Reddit, Facebook groups, forums. I explain how to do it without spamming in How to Find Clients on Reddit and Facebook.
- People already complaining about the problem. Search for the words they'd use, like "I hate", "is there a tool for" or "how do you deal with", and answer them.
And once you find them, go the extra mile: set it up for them, answer their messages fast, fix their problem personally. With your first 10, you can afford to treat every customer like the only one.
How do you turn 10 customers into 100?
- Ask for feedback. Your first customers tell you what to improve. Fix it fast and tell them you did.
- Ask for a testimonial. One real sentence from a happy customer does more for the next stranger than anything you can say about yourself.
- Ask who else needs it. Happy customers know other people with the same problem.
- Automate only what you've done by hand many times. That's how Airbnb did it: after photographing apartments themselves, they built a whole photography program. You'll know what to automate because you've already done it.
Ten customers sounds small. But ten people who love what you do are the start of everything else, and you only get them by going out and finding them yourself.
Sources
- Do Things That Don't Scale (Paul Graham)
- How design thinking transformed Airbnb (First Round Review)
- Airbnb doing things that don't scale (Alexander Jarvis)
- How I found my first 50 customers hidden in Reddit threads (Indie Hackers)
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my first customers with no audience?
By reaching out to them one by one. Talk directly to people who have the problem you solve, in your own network and in online communities where they ask for help, and give each of them personal attention. Ads usually don't work at this stage.
What does "do things that don't scale" mean?
It's advice from Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator: at the start, do things by hand that you could never do with thousands of customers, like visiting them in person or setting up the product for them. That's what gets a new business moving.
How long does it take to get the first 10 customers?
It depends on what you sell, but people who reach out personally and consistently often get their first paying customers within a few weeks or months. One founder on Indie Hackers went from zero to 53 customers in three months by replying to Reddit threads.
Should I use ads to get my first customers?
Usually not at the very start. Nobody knows you yet, so ads send people to a page from a stranger, and most of them leave. Ads work much better once you have reviews, testimonials and a clear idea of who buys.