Like, even Max Kolysh himself said the first customers will likely come from your connections.
But what if your network isn't big? I know some of you may say, "Just go to some networking parties, startup events, etc." There is a conspicuous problem as well. I am building a B2C SaaS, GoDotWebs. That tactic may work well for B2B, but B2C is all about velocity and volume.
And some people may say, "Go for ads then." Well, I am running Google Ads on a small budget to figure things out. The numbers are great: 194 impressions, 6 clicks, but zero conversions. Perhaps it's the learning phase, so not everything is optimized. Still, I am lost.
Some of you may ask, "Why don't you just ask AI?" Bro, com'n.
I think posting on socials does work, but it's super unsustainable, especially if your team is small, technically solo.
What exactly is the secret ingredient to get, at least, more users for my product? As more users = more data = much clearer trajectory = better marketing. But you are at the kick-starting phase, and it's just hard to know what I should do.
You can expect only a small percentage of people who click to subscribe. A sample size of 6 is too small to draw any conclusions. I would say that you have not paid enough money for advertising to know if it works or not.
But the reason people say to use your network isn’t really for finding customers - it’s to get feedback from potential customers. That is way more valuable than any money they might give you. It’s pretty uncommon to have instant product-market fit. A lot of startups have to make significant changes to the product or pivot entirely to become successful.
One of the things I learned from real customers is that not everyone uses a computer the same way I do, and things that I assumed everyone did are not as common as I thought. It changed how I design software and such a lesson is difficult to learn when you’re just in your own bubble.
Product hunt is debatable. I feel like it's a platform for more established products rather than new ones. Launched once, went crazy on socials, and eventually I got 5 upvotes, which is pretty decent already for a small SaaS.
There isn't. If there was everyone would be rich. That's not how it works.
You're reading too much into media incensed stories.
No 1 really woke up, suddenly had this idea to save the world and became a millionaire.
What they didn't tell you is they already had rich connections, had 20x failed startups prior or something else.
(Of course, there are those 0.001% lucky 1s, but in general)
I think the secret ingredient is to stick closer to the benchmarks (e.g., views, installs...) and experiment; it could take a long time. I might be incorrect; that's why I am willing to look into more perspectives.
There isn't for normal folks. It's just survivor bias and "rewriting history".
Most just grind it out, e.g. cold calls, emails, etc.
> social media polarized this kind of thinking
Social media is a scam though. >80% of those were proven / caught to be fake, e.g. "influencers" never had a sponsor. They edited photos to make it look like they went abroad, purchased the "sponsored" product to claim sponsorship etc.
My friend actually got his first 200 users from cold DMs. But it's on his co-founder's side, so he didn't know much about it; I couldn't get much about it. I think the most difficult part is finding strangers who would use your product online.
There are only two scenarios that will get you users
- The user is a friend of yours - The pain you are eliminating is big enough that they want your product
As for the social media part, I didn't really expect that. I was so anxious seeing people going ahead of me on socials, especially since they have made more progress (more sponsors, winning on benchmarks).
Probably a mindset to fix after hearing what you've said.
Up until I realized you don't have to compare with people in different lanes, it gets better. Also, not everything is real on socials. So, I was like, meh.