YC
50 Founders Share How They Got Their First Customers
@ Y Combinator
08/10/23
Takeaways
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Y Combinator Cast
08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
I got my first customer through a cold email, which turned out to be effective.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
We secured our first customer by doing door-to-door outreach, waiting for the food truck owner to show up.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
After leaving a voicemail for a physical therapist, she called back and expressed interest in our services, leading to a customer discovery call.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
We sold our service to one company for $250 a month, even before we had any code developed.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
We got our first customer by leveraging LinkedIn to connect and understand their needs better.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
After creating a mock-up of our personal finance product and posting it on Reddit, we received nearly a thousand sign-ups for our waitlist within 24 hours.
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08/10/23
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We launched our closed beta on Twitter, which rapidly increased our followers from 50 to 10,000 and attracted 150,000 unique visitors a day.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
We successfully found our first paying customer just this morning after sharing our project for about two and a half weeks. I shared our project on LinkedIn and with friends, which generated curiosity and led to a great waitlist for our product.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
We networked our way into big AG tech companies through introductions from a key advisor, which helped us gain traction.
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08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
I respond to biotech companies that reach out for software engineering positions by offering them our software instead, which has led to converting users into paid customers.
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Y Combinator Cast
08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
We launched our product to friends and family to test our processes and pricing, which helped us refine our approach and led to referrals.
YC
Y Combinator Cast
08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
Many founders find their first customers within their network, and I was fortunate to work with amazing people across various industries who supported our venture.
YC
Y Combinator Cast
08/10/23
@ Y Combinator
The positive feedback from our initial customers and our go-to-market strategies will help us accelerate customer acquisition by demo day.