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Dmitry Kalinchenko

How did you land your first customers?

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What has worked for you in landing your first few customers? We've just launched a public beta with a couple of initial customers and looking to onboard more. I'm curious what worked for others, especially in b2b saas space. P.S. Apologies if this topic has already been explored but I haven't found anything relevant.
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Dave Newmuis
My first startup was called Schoozy, it was like YouTube but for education and we delivered bite-sized videos that covered a full college curriculum, and it had Q&A and tutoring built around it. We were a team of 9 and it was in my attempt to organize ourselves and run the business remotely (years before it was mandatory) that I realized how tough it is. I ended up buying 8 different software subscriptions to perform basic functions and I actually created my current company by accident. I was building a system that put all of the software we needed into a single 'package' to cut our costs and be an easier to use option; and that transformed into my company today, Operwell.com. I was my first customer and today we continue to use our own platform to run our business. Our first 30 signups were all word of mouth and it started with my network. I love to discuss strategies with friends of mine who are either managers or are running their own business -Projects are running late/over budget (again).. -Constantly checking Slack or I'm missing out.. -Tired of overpaying with Salesforce -Need 20 different app integrations, etc.. I eventually (likely, annoyingly) found myself referencing features or options in Operwell to cover our topics of discussion and my friend's started having their teams give it a try. After some time testing it out, their employees would mention it to a handful of their colleagues and we started to grow fairly naturally. We didn't grow rapidly at first, but it always helps if you have the problem yourself. Your friends and personal network may have a few people who share your entrepreneurial/ professional passions (and problems); and your first customers are probably the ones closest to you.
Local seo
@dnewmuis We didn't grow rapidly at first, but it always helps if you have the problem yourself. Your friends and personal network may have a few people who share your entrepreneurial/ professional passions (and problems); and your first customers are probably the ones closest to you. khanapara teer dream number
Justin Buchanan
hey @dmitry_kalinchenko! it's a really great question. we're actually in a similar position right now. one of the strongest channels we've had has been live demos (virtually through zoom). it's been a great way to get in front of warm potential customers, friendlies, etc and try to get that early validation. let me know if you find good sources! we're actually launching on PH today 🤞😬 and would love any feedback you might have! :) https://www.producthunt.com/post...
James Carlin
@dmitry_kalinchenko @justintbuchanan Also in the same boat working to lock in our first few customers for our B2B software. Are these demo events you participated in or one-on-one chats you arranged with customers?
David Deisadze
@dmitry_kalinchenko @justintbuchanan love the idea of demos! Do you have an email list where you market the demos? Curious how do you get leads for those sessions?
Henry Feng
@justintbuchanan Suitable for SasS product, but might not be good for tool and other user product? I was wondering the ROI for live demos?
David T. Kim
Hey @dmitry_kalinchenko, We got around 1600 first time customers for free on the day of the launch. Method 1. Engaged in online communities that needed our product well before launch 2. Collected emails without spamming 3. Updated potential users consistently 4. Converted them on launch. In my opinion, the biggest issue is always "retention", not acquisition. Hope that helps.
Rajan Soni
@dmitry_kalinchenko @david_t_kim WOW! 1600 customers on day 1 sounds amazing. What communities did you engage in and how many email were u able to collect pre-launch. I am assuming it'd be atleast upwards of 5k
Mata Mokwala
@dmitry_kalinchenko @david_t_kim "In my opinion, the biggest issue is always retention, not acquitioin." Very important insight.
David T. Kim
@dmitry_kalinchenko @rajansoni Yes, it was at least 5k emails. We got customers from mostly social communities like Indie Hackers, Reddit, Facebook Groups and some discord.
Rajan Soni
@david_t_kim That sounds fantastic. How long before the launch did you start engaging in the communities. Also, post launch did you continue nurturing the communities?
Local seo
@dmitry_kalinchenko @david_t_kim In my opinion, the biggest issue is always retention, not acquitioin." Very important insight.How To Open FAB Bank Account?
Kanan Tandi
We got the first client through Social Media. Continuous updates on all our social media platforms. got us more traction and our first client.
Carmela Padasas
David Deisadze
@kanan_tandi personal social media accounts or did you start a business account and targeted your segmented audiences? Curious what was the timeline from when you first started the channel -> 1st customer?
Vinh
Before official launch, I tried to chime in into conversation on social media when people search for that. I run https://hanami.run and example I google "Cloudflare email forwarding" and join the dicussion like this https://community.cloudflare.com... Eventually I land the first customer that way.
Justin Buchanan
hey @kureikain! I checked out your product - I love the clean design and rich documentation. one extra thought for you to consider, I love your pricing (very affordable!), but the colorful design almost looks like it could be "100, 600, 1500" at first glance if you don't see the periods. Maybe consider just staying "$1, $6, $15"? I actually think that'll look and feel cheaper to the users. Just a thought! :)
Vinh
@justintbuchanan thanks so much for such a valueable feedback. That's totally right now that you said it. Thanks so much again. Gonna make a quick change :-)
Justin Buchanan
@kureikain awesome! best of luck!!!
Brayden W
Networking. It’s important to have a good connection with people who connections with other and so on.. It helps get the word around for sure!
Agnieszka
Hi! We already had a strong product LiveChat (https://www.producthunt.com/post... ) when we started working on our product suite. Our second product was @chatbotcom . The first paying customers came from LiveChat's customers database (the tools work smoothly together). Also, we bought a strong domain (chatbot.com) that gave us organic, well-converting traffic. A similar story happened with our third product - HelpDesk. First customers came from LiveChat's database (with HelpDesk we covered some customer cases that LiveChat doesn't cover). Also, we bought a strong domain (HelpDesk.com) and got organic traffic. As far as I remember, the first paying customer came from Product Hunt, actually. :) (https://www.producthunt.com/post...)
Pooran Prasad Rajanna
We went through our personal network to reach prospects for interview during beta. On boarded them on free plan as they could give us way to build better product. We recently pivoted and invited them for 15 min meeting and gave lifetime access to most features otherwise they had to pay for.
Niko Germish
@pooran_prasad_rajanna I often hear about the networking funnel, but is it easy to switch to other paid methods of acquiring clients after?
Ethan Halfhide
We are building in public, every new status update we have, such as the figma prototype being completed. We consultant with the founders who helped us validate our idea initially to walk them through the user journey. It increases buy in, relationship building and more.
Rajan Soni
@ethan_halfhide I like the idea about buy in. How did u get customers to follow you initially though? Did you already have the right following or email list?
Local seo
Max
Ads on YouTube.
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