How did you land your first customers?

My friend knew I had set up a web design shop so he passed me my first job to make a web site. Man this was so long ago.

Designing in 3D for free! especially for you and your friends http://roomtodo.com

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.

I hired my first employee ! he was in a way my first client because I had to convince him that this project was the best one.

First client came from cold email.

We go our first client through a Social Media launch. Posted https://oboloo.com and got a few sign ups years ago

Hey Dimitry 😊, We just launched our b2b and b2c bookmarking solution for web designers and front end developers on Product Hunt and our first customers came from PH.

Hey, @dmitry_kalinchenko! Ours is a B2B startup. You can imagine how much groundwork it takes to achieve initial sales. Firstly, we set up a good website optimized for higher search engine rankings. Next, what helped us the most is our firm reliance on proactive communication to attract and keep potential customers. We use !ProProfs Chat(https://www.proprofschat.com/) on our website to interact with visitors. The tool sends the list of users who interacted with us directly to our CRM. There is also a record of the chat, which we use for future reference and support team training. Live conversations and features like announcements allowed us to never let a visitor leave without a solution in hand or something they can anticipate from our brand.

First 10 clients came within my network. I had promised myself that I will not build a product for the people that I do not have much access to. This helps me a lot during the product and UX thinking, and reaching out to them as well.

Friends/references