How to Get Your First 10 Customers
aurenvale
28 points
8 comments
June 24, 2026
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Discussion Highlights (4 comments)
aurenvale
Many founders start their customer search with cold email, LinkedIn, and prospecting tools. But the first 10 customers rarely come from a tool. It starts somewhere else: your network, showing up in person, and a willingness to do things that don't scale. In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner Max Kolysh draws on dozens of YC founder stories to explain how to identify the right buyers, start conversations, and turn them into your first customers.
kristianp
Why the first 10? These tips might work for the first 20, 30 or even 50 customers, depending on how much time/money they require.
TowerTall
There is related post from a year ago. 354 comments. Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43970837
backend_dev82
I guess I am very atypical. My first customer came from Reddit outreach, and also my second, and third and so on. None came from personal network (never really even tried that, maybe i should) I know its going to stop being so effective at at some point, but so far so good. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.