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Ben Silbermann

11/09/16

@ Y Combinator

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.

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Ben Silbermann at Startup School SV 2016

@ Y Combinator

Ben Silbermann at Startup School SV 2016

11/09/16

Related Takeaways

Adora Cheung

03/20/17

@ Y Combinator

Your first users should be people you know, like friends and family, to gather initial feedback and refine your product before reaching a broader audience.

Eric Migicovsky

07/26/19

@ Y Combinator

In the idea stage, find your first users by talking to people who have encountered the problem you're trying to solve.

Michael Seibel

08/01/19

@ Y Combinator

To get your first users, talk directly to the people who have the problem you're trying to solve; if you're your own user, it makes it even easier.

Eric Migicovsky

07/26/19

@ Y Combinator

During the idea stage, it's crucial to find your first users who have a specific problem.

Elizabeth Iorns

10/03/18

@ Y Combinator

Our first customers were friends who were scientists, and they provided valuable feedback that helped us refine our service to be more effective and cost-efficient.

Ashley Wong

09/18/18

@ Y Combinator

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

Eric Chen

04/08/25

@ EO

To acquire our first 100 users, I reached out to every crypto-related group chat, engaging with participants to gather feedback on our interactive exchange.

Ben Silbermann

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

The few people that used Pinterest actually really loved it, so instead of immediately changing the product, I thought maybe I could just find more people like me.

Jason Citron

11/25/24

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

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.