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

559 points amanchanda | 4 comments | 13 May 25 08:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.709s | 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)

1. helro ◴[13 May 25 11:41 UTC] No.43971793[source]▶
I got 20k+ downloads for my app by posting on Reddit. It's an app/website blocker for iPhone & Mac, so I focused on relevant communities like r/digitalminimalism and r/dumbphones with genuine, non-spammy posts: https://www.atten.app

I also tried "apps gone free" campaigns by posting on Reddit and using sites like AppRaven. These were very effective for visibility, the launch is currently the #5 all-time post on r/macapps (https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/top/?t=all). While these campaigns drove a strong spike in downloads, retention was low, so they weren’t as useful for building a long-term user base.

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2. tquinn ◴[13 May 25 15:04 UTC] No.43973752[source]▶
I've been frustrated with my scheduled blocker, so based on your landing page I'm giving it a shot. So far it looks like a breath of fresh air.
3. xandrius ◴[14 May 25 20:41 UTC] No.43988968[source]▶
Honest question: how do you post on Reddit without getting bashed for self-promotion in the subreddit which people would probably like the product/thing?
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4. MarcelOlsz ◴[16 May 25 18:35 UTC] No.44008551[source]▶
You post those giant threads that get 600+ upvotes in niche webdev/cs communities and you tuck in a link to your thing amongst many others, making it virtually impossible to detect as promotion.