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Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

559 points amanchanda | 2 comments | 13 May 25 08:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.604s | source

I am building a B2C AI SaaS with $50/month price. How would you go about getting with first 100 users and then the next 500 users.

What we are currently doing: 1) Cold outreach to power users - to convert them into affiliates. 2) Cold outreach to individuals who have target ICP communities. 3) SEO for more long term (not for the first 500)

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mpeg ◴[13 May 25 09:29 UTC] No.43971141[source]▶
B2C is hard...

Long term, only paid ads and SEO will work (and SEO can be fickle)

Short term, run some paid experiments (knowing you will probably not get positive return yet) and maybe some influencer marketing (they'll cost money, but not as much as paid ads depending on the niche)

replies(2): >>43971201 #>>43971903 #
amanchanda ◴[13 May 25 09:41 UTC] No.43971201[source]▶
Have you seen results with paid experiments at this early stage? One thing we are considering is to do a paid masterclass (low ticket) and run paid ads for that. Bring them in the funnel and get them signed up to use the product.
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1. mpeg ◴[13 May 25 10:00 UTC] No.43971305[source]▶
Without knowing what the vertical is, hard to say whether a masterclass like that would provide good results. I know for some verticals things like free webinars etc can provide decent results, but that's usually b2b

So, usually paid experiments won't really give you a return at an early stage, but occasionally they can if you get lucky, but at least they'll give you an idea of what your CAC can be, and give you a starting point to start optimising it

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2. amanchanda ◴[15 May 25 14:56 UTC] No.43995742[source]▶
I just added more context in a comment above. I am building an AI Ghostwriter for LinkedIn content (https://socialhq.me)