At the start of the S23 batch we interviewed 50 founders about how they managed to get their very first customers. It's a snapshot in time that highlights the different tactics YC founders employ in the early stages to get their companies up and running. Hopefully their experience will offer some insights for anyone wondering about how exactly to go after that first customer.

Thank you to all the companies who volunteered to be interviewed for this episode: Artie, CandorIQ, Accend, Mantlebio, Fleet Works, Sweetspot, Shasta Health, Kapa, Ohmic Biosciences, Kino AI, Osium AI, Gleam, Paylane, Fortuna Health, Roame, Mano AI, Certainly Health, Strada, Envelope Money, Greenlite, Spine AI, RightPage, Movley, Octo, Craftwork, Letter AI, Flair Health, Helios

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/FounderFAQ-apply 
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/FounderFAQ-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 
00:00 - Intro: How did you find your first customer?
00:20 - Sweetspot
00:31 - Shasta Health
00:45 - Kapa.ai
01:01 - Platform we got our first customer?
01:15 - Envelope Money
01:36 - Reworkd AI
01:53 - Greenlite
02:12 - Ohmic Biosciences
02:23 - Kino AI
02:34 - MantleBio
02:49 - Accend
02:57 - Craftwork
03:11 - Helios
03:25 - Letter AI
03:52 - Outro

The first 1 was actually just kind of very crafted cold outreach.

We got our first customer just literally going door to door, standing in the sun waiting for the owner to just show up because he was just in his food truck all day and ended up taking a break and then we just capitalized and closed it.

Actually I had left a voicemail for 1 of our physical therapists that we're working with and she called me back and she was like, oh, tell me more about what got your start.

We actually gave our background on like, this is why we got into it.

And she thought it was like, we were coming from a good place, so she wanted to work with us.

Initially, we just did customer discovery calls to try and figure out if this was something people would be interested in.

And we sold it to 1 company for $250 for a month.

And we didn't have any code, and then we just made a version of it in 7 days and deployed it.

We got our first customer by using LinkedIn.

And at some point we got some conversations with those customers and we started better understanding the needs, better understanding what kind of solution they needed.

So we made a mock-up of our dream personal finance product, made a website for it with a little wait list, and we posted it on a Reddit group.

And within 24 hours, there was like close to 1, 000 people that had signed up for the wait list.

It really resonated with a lot of people that were having the same financial pain points as us, we launched our closed beta and started onboarding those customers.

For us, it was a bit of a wild week in which we launched on Twitter and suddenly, a few days later, I went from 50 followers to like 10, 000.

And so we're really fortunate to have the lightning in a bottle and have all these customers come to us.

We actually got our first customer paying this morning.

We shared what we were doing about 2 and a half weeks ago on just our LinkedIn's and shared with our friends and a lot of people came inbound.

People were really curious about what we were building here, got a great waitlist and this customer came through that waitlist which was really exciting.

but we've got like 1 really good advisor who sort of made some introductions to folks at a couple of the big ag tech companies.

So, sort of networking our way in really.

We are in beta, so immediately after I get out of here, I'm getting on a plane to go to LA for a few days.

We're going to make the rounds of the production companies and see who's interested in this tool.

How are you gonna try to get that first customer?

I take all the companies that message me trying to hire me as a software engineer for their biotech company and I respond saying, no, but how would you like to buy software that does the same thing?

We have users and we are currently converting them into paid customers.

First customer we got was a friend of ours.

It's like hitting up friends, talking to other people in the space that I was close with.

We launched with friends and family so that way we can test our processes out, our pricing, and see what was working, what wasn't.

And then from there it kind of naturally evolved.

We started getting referrals from our friends and family.

Through our networks, Shreyas's extended family holiday home paid us to put in the first system, which has been great.

Like, talk about the best customer for me.

For him, having his in-laws' holiday home has been a little

bit more stressful, but I'm like, this is great.

As with a lot of founders, your first few customers come from your network.

And so I was fortunate enough to work with some amazing folks across a wide range of industries.

Went and kind of told them a little bit about what we were building, and they liked what we were building enough to put real money behind it.

And so that's how we got the first few customers.

And, you know, hopefully the good word we get from them and a few other kind of go-to-market techniques we're trying will help us really accelerate, get way more customers by demo day.


Speaker 0: How did you find your first customer?

Speaker 1: Surprisingly a cold email.

Speaker 0: That's a good question.

Speaker 2: A lot of calls and emailing. On Reddit, actually.

Speaker 1: We don't have them yet. We're currently looking for that.

Speaker 2: The first 1 was actually just kind of very crafted cold outreach.

Speaker 3: We got our first customer just literally going door to door, standing in the sun waiting for the owner to just show up because he was just in his food truck all day and ended up taking a break and then we just capitalized and closed it.

Speaker 2: Actually I had left a voicemail for 1 of our physical therapists that we're working with and she called me back and she was like, oh, tell me more about what got your start. We actually gave our background on like, this is why we got into it. And she thought it was like, we were coming from a good place, so she wanted to work with us.

Speaker 0: Initially, we just did customer discovery calls to try and figure out if this was something people would be interested in. And we sold it to 1 company for $250 for a month. And we didn't have any code, and then we just made a version of it in 7 days and deployed it. It's a pretty rough 7 days though.

Speaker 1: Yeah. We got our first customer by using LinkedIn.

Speaker 4: LinkedIn. LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Facebook. Reddit.

Speaker 1: Reddit. Reddit. Reddit and Hacker News. And at some point we got some conversations with those customers and we started better understanding the needs, better understanding what kind of solution they needed. So we made a mock-up of our dream personal finance product, made a website for it with a little wait list, and we posted it on a Reddit group.

And within 24 hours, there was like close to 1, 000 people that had signed up for the wait list. It really resonated with a lot of people that were having the same financial pain points as us, we launched our closed beta and started onboarding those customers.

Speaker 5: For us, it was a bit of a wild week in which we launched on Twitter and suddenly, a few days later, I went from 50 followers to like 10, 000. We had 20, 000 stars on GitHub. We had 150, 000 unique visitors a day. And so we're really fortunate to have the lightning in a bottle and have all these customers come to us.

Speaker 6: You're actually in a great time. We actually got our first customer paying this morning.

Speaker 0: How did you find that first customer?

Speaker 6: So we launched. We shared what we were doing about 2 and a half weeks ago on just our LinkedIn's and shared with our friends and a lot of people came inbound. People were really curious about what we were building here, got a great waitlist and this customer came through that waitlist which was really exciting. We don't really have any customers yet

Speaker 7: but we've got like 1 really good advisor who sort of made some introductions to folks at a couple of the big ag tech companies. So, sort of networking our way in really.

Speaker 8: We are in beta, so immediately after I get out of here, I'm getting on a plane to go to LA for a few days. We're going to make the rounds of the production companies and see who's interested in this tool.

Speaker 2: How are you gonna try to get that first customer?

Speaker 9: I take all the companies that message me trying to hire me as a software engineer for their biotech company and I respond saying, no, but how would you like to buy software that does the same thing? We have users and we are currently converting them into paid customers.

Speaker 10: First customer we got was a friend of ours.

Speaker 7: It's like hitting up friends, talking to other people in the space that I was close with.

Speaker 11: We launched with friends and family so that way we can test our processes out, our pricing, and see what was working, what wasn't. And then from there it kind of naturally evolved. We started getting referrals from our friends and family.

Speaker 4: Through our networks, Shreyas's extended family holiday home paid us to put in the first system, which has been great. Like, talk about the best customer for me. For him, having his in-laws' holiday home has been a little

Speaker 2: bit more stressful, but I'm like, this is great.

Speaker 10: As with a lot of founders, your first few customers come from your network. And so I was fortunate enough to work with some amazing folks across a wide range of industries. Went and kind of told them a little bit about what we were building, and they liked what we were building enough to put real money behind it. And so that's how we got the first few customers. And, you know, hopefully the good word we get from them and a few other kind of go-to-market techniques we're trying will help us really accelerate, get way more customers by demo day.

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50 Founders Share How They Got Their First Customers