To find our first users, I emailed friends, but they didn't really get it. The initial users were actually people I grew up with, using it for everyday things like home design and food planning.

We quickly realized that building it and expecting users to come didn't work; we had to actively engage potential users to grow our platform.

The first real product we launched was a chat UI that allowed users to converse and retrieve data from a database, which was well-received.

I encourage founders to stay in touch with their first 100 users, as it keeps you informed and connected to their needs.

To acquire users without spending money, we reached out to like-minded groups and personally invited them to check out The Muse, which led to valuable word-of-mouth sharing.

Frustrated with communication issues with our users, we added a message feature in our product that allowed users to engage with us directly, which significantly improved user interaction.

To stay connected with our users, I personally engage with them on WhatsApp, providing customer support and gathering feedback on new features before launch.

We brought in customers early to test our product, which helped change the minds of skeptical team members when they saw real-time reactions from users.

During our early days, we communicated closely with our 24 users, which helped us understand their needs without being metric-driven.