Ask HN: Founders, what was the major sourcing channel for your first 100 users?

Please also share target audience to correlate better.

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buf ◴[19 Oct 24 04:56 UTC] No.41885732[source]▶

I'm a founder of 3 small saas companies that I run by myself, generating about $1M ARR.

1. First one I started 10 years ago. I built a bot that auto DMed people in various internet forums. My first 100 users came from that. The product is highly shareable, so it quickly grew. Now it's 1.6M users (most of them free).

2. Second started 3.5 years ago. My first 100 users came from simply emailing the newsletter list from my first company. This product has no free plan, so it became profitable instantly.

3. Third started 1 month ago. And it's been a struggle. I got 10k free users just by emailing my list, but 0 paying users. So I tried ads and had similar results from the ads. Now I'm taking a step back and understanding why they aren't paying, which involves just emailing them.

Summary: once you have an email list and viral social loops built-in, marketing gets easier.

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1. namanyayg ◴[19 Oct 24 08:06 UTC] No.41886401[source]▶

>>41885732 #

Awesome! Followed you on X. Can you elaborate more on what you mean by "viral social loops"?

replies(2): >>41886510 #>>41887969 #

2. buf ◴[19 Oct 24 08:34 UTC] No.41886510[source]▶

>>41886401 (TP) #

Any b2c product I build has huge incentive to share the product, creating more users.

In the product itself, social is part of the value. So the more they interact, the more value they get. Similar to any social network you see today.

I do this a number of ways, none original. Reactions, upvotes, achievements, streaks, creating summary videos (like Spotify year in review), public recommendations, etc

replies(1): >>41886535 #

3. buf ◴[19 Oct 24 08:41 UTC] No.41886535[source]▶

>>41886510 #

If you want some great reading material on this, I recommend Reforge's viral loops info. I believe it's free.

replies(1): >>41888978 #

4. ignoramous ◴[19 Oct 24 14:32 UTC] No.41887969[source]▶

>>41886401 (TP) #

Not OP but there are more than one ways to tap in to the distribution channels that exists thanks to influencers (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Substack, Telegram). I, personally, don't see it any different than Nike hiring Lionel Messi or Uniqlo hiring Roger Federer. Where Nike is a global company, indie developers (especially the ones in Software) are smaller and thus could focus on just the right content creators, ie rely on marketing to boost sales.

This phenomenon isn't new. The book The Long Tail posited (way back) that even niche software could make millions now that the Internet had made it cheaper to reach just the right audience.

Teenagers, Zach Yadegari (calai.app) and Blake Anderson (apex.inc), who built million dollar app-based businesses in 6mo, plan to release a book on it: https://x.com/zach_yadegari/status/1845842051314614681 / https://archive.md/xXf9a

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5. fuzztester ◴[19 Oct 24 17:03 UTC] No.41888978{3}[source]▶

>>41886535 #

I checked, there is a membership to access the full content.

I see what you did there.

replies(1): >>41889066 #

6. buf ◴[19 Oct 24 17:15 UTC] No.41889066{4}[source]▶

>>41888978 #

I thought they were still doing one free lesson. It's been a while since I was on Reforge though.

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7. fuzztester ◴[19 Oct 24 18:38 UTC] No.41889681{5}[source]▶

>>41889066 #

ha ha, i was just kidding :)

8. jainvivek ◴[21 Oct 24 10:54 UTC] No.41902783[source]▶

>>41887969 #

It's good to see these success stories, but is also important to account for survivor bias before blindly following their rule book.

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