If you built a product alone and have little audience, your first users are unlikely to arrive just because the product is live. Find people who already have the problem, invite them personally, help them succeed, and use what you learn to improve the product. These five labor-intensive moves can help you work toward your first 100 users; they do not guarantee that number or prove the product will retain customers.
1. Find people who already have the problem
Start with a specific group likely to need what you built—not a broad audience defined only by age, job title, or interest. Paul Graham’s 2013 essay says founders often have to recruit users manually rather than wait for discovery. His advice is direct: “You can’t wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them.” Paul Graham, “Do Things that Don’t Scale”
For a business product, identify who can actually buy or approve it, then build a small list of plausible prospects. For a consumer product, look for people already doing the behavior your product supports and find settings where they discuss or practice it. The aim is not to pitch everyone; it is to reach people for whom the problem is already real.
Choose a channel you can learn from
Compare possible channels by whether you can reach the right people, speak with them directly, and observe what happens when they try the product. Also consider the effort per conversation, how quickly you can get useful feedback, and any community or privacy norms. These are decision factors, not a universal ranking: a channel that works for one product may be a poor fit for another.
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If your prospective users gather online, Reddit or Product Hunt may be places to listen and learn, but communities have their own rules and can be wary of commercial posts. Understand the local norms, participate honestly, and approach people helpfully rather than disguising a pitch as ordinary community participation. These examples come from Y Combinator’s 2018 Growth AMA with YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer; they are options, not endorsements or guarantees of reach.
2. Invite prospects yourself
For B2B, use a simple sequence: determine the likely buyer, list a small number of fitting prospects, find an appropriate contact route, send a plain-text note explaining why you chose them, and follow up if it makes sense. Keep the message specific and easy to answer. Ask for a short conversation or a chance to try the product; do not imply a relationship or endorsement that does not exist.
In the 2018 AMA, Alströmer described email discovery and outreach tools such as Hunter, Mixmax, PersistIQ, and Streak as examples in this workflow. They are historical examples, not a current recommendation; check their availability, terms, and suitability before relying on any tool. A small, relevant set of genuine conversations is more useful than sending a large volume of generic messages.
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For consumer products, personal invitations can be just as direct: contact people who visibly experience the problem, explain what the product does, and make it easy to decline. The best first channel is one where you can learn from the people you reach—not simply collect impressions or clicks.
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3. Help each early user get started
When someone agrees to try the product, help them use it while their goal is still clear. Walk through the setup, answer questions, and help them complete a meaningful task. This can reveal confusing steps that a sign-up count will not show.
Paul Graham describes Stripe’s founders helping early users set up the product on the spot. Y Combinator’s essential advice recounts Airbnb’s founders photographing early listings themselves. Those are historical examples of hands-on help, not instructions to copy literally: choose the assistance that removes the biggest obstacle in your own product. YC’s Essential Startup Advice
Rank #3
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- What You Get: Anker USB-C Hub (7-in-1), welcome guide, 18-month warranty, and our friendly customer service.
4. Serve early users personally—and observe them
Respond promptly, make it easy to ask for help, and, when it is useful, help finish the task the product is meant to support. Graham’s essay describes unusually attentive early customer service, including handwritten thank-you notes. The point is not to make a gesture for its own sake; personal service can build trust while showing you where the product falls short.
Ask questions that expose friction
Talk with users about what they need, then watch them attempt a real task. Alströmer’s 2018 AMA suggests asking what people think a product does and having them narrate their thoughts as they use it. Notice where they hesitate, what they misunderstand, and which parts they value. Compliments and interview answers can be encouraging, but they are not by themselves evidence that people will keep using or recommend the product.
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Use what you see to make a specific improvement, then invite users to try again. Y Combinator frames building a product people want as launching, talking with users, and iterating on their feedback. YC’s Essential Startup Advice
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5. Focus on the users who care most, then automate what you understand
Look for the users who are most enthusiastic or who get the clearest value, and find more people like them. A narrow segment can be a better starting point than trying to serve an entire market at once. Graham also describes focusing on a small subset of a market that can reach critical mass. This is especially relevant when a product needs enough activity in one segment before it becomes useful.
Do the manual work long enough to learn what the software actually needs to handle. If you repeatedly guide users through the same setup, answer the same question, or perform a task behind the scenes, you may have found a product gap or an automation candidate. Automate the bottleneck after you understand it—not simply because doing anything by hand feels inefficient.
For a marketplace, recruit the side that unlocks value
Decide which side must be present first for the other side to find the product valuable. Alströmer notes that Airbnb needed hosts before guests; other marketplaces may need to seed supply differently, sometimes with incentives. The right sequence depends on what makes your particular marketplace useful, so do not assume that a two-sided product should recruit both sides equally from day one. Growth AMA with YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer
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- Powerful Pass-Through Charging: Supports up to 85W pass-through charging so you can power up your laptop while you use the hub. Note: Pass-through charging requires a charger (not included). Note: To achieve full power for iPad, we recommend using a 45W wall charger.
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Measure more than sign-ups
A count of 100 accounts tells you how many people registered, not whether the product solved a problem. Watch whether people complete the important task, return when they have the need again, and recommend the product to others. Y Combinator’s “Before You Grow” warns about the “leaky bucket” problem: acquiring users does not help much if they do not stay. It describes active recommendations as a meaningful signal and mentions Net Promoter Score as one possible measure, not a universal threshold.
Graham’s 2013 essay uses 10% weekly growth to illustrate compounding: at 100 users, adding 10 the next week is 10% growth. Its projection of roughly 14,000 users after a year and 2 million after two years is illustrative arithmetic, not an observed startup result, a forecast, or a target every business should meet. The practical lesson is to learn from the users you can serve well, not to treat a growth rate as proof of product-market fit. “Do Things that Don’t Scale”
Do not mistake a launch for user acquisition
A major launch or corporate partnership can consume time without bringing the right early users. Graham cautions against relying on large launches and startup partnerships as a substitute for the work of getting users; Y Combinator likewise advises founders to keep talking to users and building rather than becoming distracted by press or corporate development. These are cautions, not claims that every launch or partnership fails. For an early solo founder, prioritize the route that gives you direct access to people with the problem and helps you learn what they need.
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