How 50 startups got their first users

A solo developer shipped a paid iOS app and relied mainly on App Store keyword optimization, with some Reddit posts. It passed 1,000 downloads and briefly reached the Top 10 in its category.

Reported: 1,000+ downloads; about $700 revenue at $0.99; 170,000 impressions; Top 10 in Entertainment

“the main source of traffic and customer acquisition has been App Store search through ASO.”

App Store search, Communities indieniche.substack.com, Igor, March 2026

The founders posted about four AI-generated videos a day across social platforms to fill a waitlist of 600. Only 20 converted at launch, and reaching 100 paid users took eight months.

Reported: 1,000+ short videos at 4 a day; 600 waitlist signups; 20 converted; 100 paid users after 8 months

“By June 2023, when we finally launched, 600 people had signed up for the waitlist.”

Social media, A waitlist magichour.ai, Runbo Li, January 2025

They got the first 10 users from personal networks, then posted on Hacker News, which produced 300 deployments within days. A small paid Twitter push and steady community work took them to 1,000 users.

Reported: 10 users from personal networks; a couple dozen from outreach; 300 deployments within days of a Hacker News post; about $2,000 on Twitter promotion; 1,000 users by May 2020

“We reached 300 deployments within a couple of days – five weeks after we started building.”

Word of mouth, Cold outreach, Launch platforms, Paid ads Hacker News posthog.com, James Hawkins, June 2024

A Product Hunt launch flopped, so a friend handed over his free Instagram analytics tool and redirected its users to Pallyy. That got the solo founder to about 100 customers at $5 a month.

Reported: About 100 customers at $5 a month; Product Hunt launch got little response

“Friend had a free IG analytics tool, he gave it to me & we redirected it to my platform.”

Partnerships indiehackers.com, Tim B, October 2023

He launched a powerlifting web app on the same day across Reddit, Discord, Indie Hackers, Twitter and Hacker News. Niche subreddits and Discord servers brought 85 of the first 100 users, while Twitter and Hacker News brought none.

Reported: Reddit 60, Discord 25, Indie Hackers 15, Twitter 0, Hacker News 0; 100 users in the first week

“Reddit was by far my best launch platform, giving me 60 out of my first 100 users.”

Communities, Launch platforms Indie Hackers Hacker News indiehackers.com, Alexander Chen, September 2023

They launched on Product Hunt on Christmas Day and promoted the launch across Slack, Discord and Telegram groups and forums. That produced 500 customers in three days.

Reported: 500 customers in 3 days

“Our efforts paid off and we got our first 500 customers within 3 days!”

Launch platforms, Communities Product Hunt indiehackers.com, Leo Baishun, September 2023

A post in an app enthusiast community brought the first 10 customers. Apple then featured the app as an Editor's Pick and App of the Month, pushing it past 100.

Reported: First 10 from one community post; Weekly Editor's Pick and App of the Month; 100+ customers

“it was chosen as the Weekly Editor's Pick. Shortly after, it was named App of the Month, propelling us to over 100 customers.”

Communities, Word of mouth, App Store search indiehackers.com, Wang Legolas, September 2023

Cold email landed the first 10 paying customers of this data API. SEO content then became the main source for the next 90 and beyond.

Reported: First 10 from cold email; SEO drove 30% to 50% of customers 11 to 100; later about 70% inbound from SEO

“Cold email outreach got our first 10 paying customers.”

Cold outreach, SEO indiehackers.com, Steven Goh, September 2023

After the first customers came from his network, he hosted regular Clubhouse rooms and launched a 25% affiliate program. That grew the base to 100 to 200 customers in a couple of months.

Reported: 2 to 3 Clubhouse rooms a week; 25% affiliate commission; 100 to 200 customers within a couple of months

“Within a couple of months, this grew our customer base between 100–200 customers.”

Word of mouth, Social media, Partnerships indiehackers.com, Matthew Pierce, September 2023

Vanta sold SOC 2 preparation to fellow startups through the Y Combinator network, landing Lattice early. Around 20 companies were paying before the product had been through a single audit.

Reported: About 20 paying startups before the first SOC 2 audit; inbound grew from 1 to 2 or 3 customers a week

“Around 20 startups were already paying Vanta to streamline the process of SOC 2 preparation”

Communities, Word of mouth review.firstround.com, Christina Cacioppo, August 2023

A solo founder built a tool for lawyers with his lawyer brother as the first user. Further users came by word of mouth, reaching about $90 MRR.

Reported: About $90 MRR

“Right now spreading of the word is mostly through word of mouth.”

Word of mouth wasp.sh, Erlis Kllogjri, February 2023

Airtable ran an invite-only alpha where users could refer others, growing slowly to about 100 users over two years. The founders studied a small nonprofit team closely rather than chasing volume.

Reported: About 100 alpha users over roughly 2 years; an early 10 to 15 person nonprofit team

“It was invite-only, but you could refer other people, so that helped us get some organic growth, but not a ton”

A waitlist, Word of mouth review.firstround.com, Andrew Ofstad, December 2022

The founders first pitched people they knew in person, then switched to outbound emails, which took them to roughly 40 customers. They reached seven figures of ARR before ever launching publicly.

Reported: 3 to 5 customers from in-person outreach, then about 40 customers and $1M to $2M ARR before the Hacker News launch

“the path we took to find more customers was, uh, outbound emails. Uh, and that probably took us from maybe to 20 to 30 to 40 customers.”

Cold outreach review.firstround.com, David Hsu, November 2022

He launched an interactive demo tool on Hacker News and Reddit, then personally followed up with every user and shipped their feedback fast. That produced 340 signups and 10 paying customers.

Reported: 340 signups; 10 paying customers; 70 upvotes on Hacker News; 70 upvotes on r/SideProject

“The users who saw me implementing their feedback trusted me and became my first paid customers.”

Launch platforms, Communities, Word of mouth, Cold outreach Hacker News news.ycombinator.com, Koushik, November 2022

He grew an email list from a YouTube and forum audience plus cheap Facebook lead ads, then launched an ebook to it. Day one brought 34 sales and $1,359.66.

Reported: Prelaunch list of about 2,500; Facebook ads at $5 a day and $0.25 to $0.60 per lead; 34 sales at $49.99 for $1,359.66 on day one

“In the first day of launching, I sold 34 eBooks for $49.99 each, earning $1359.66.”

Communities, Paid ads, A waitlist dougie.io, Doug, August 2022

The founders built in public with updates on Indie Hackers, their blog and Twitter, which brought all early users and 60 active beta users by the paid launch. Blog posts reaching the Hacker News front page then drove the traffic spikes.

Reported: 60 active beta users and $64 MRR in the first paid month; 2,500 visitors in a day from a blog post on Hacker News; later 25,000+ in a day

“We had 60 active beta users at this point, and some decided to stick around and pay for our service too.”

Communities, Content marketing, Social media plausible.io, Marko Saric, June 2022

The founders spent about three hours a day pitching journalists by email. A Real Simple feature then brought in a couple hundred orders.

Reported: 3 hours a day pitching press; 30% to 35% response rate; a Real Simple feature brought a couple hundred orders

“I would dedicate about three hours a day, just to pitch to press and get as many emails out as possible”

Press shopify.com, Susana Saeliu, June 2022

He wrote technical threads and gave away a sample chapter to collect emails before launching a book to a small Twitter audience. The launch sold 231 copies for $2,373.

Reported: About 1,900 Twitter followers and 83 email subscribers; 231 sales; $2,373; 16% email conversion

“My launch e-mails had a 16% conversion rate.”

Social media, Content marketing martinjoo.dev, Martin Joo, March 2022

Paid ads brought the first paying users but cost far more than they returned, so he turned them off. Blog posts and organic traffic then took the product past $1,000 MRR.

Reported: $858 on ads returned $248 from 10 users; $3,050 on ads returned $740; ads stopped, then blog posts led to $1,106 MRR

“Spending $858 to bring in $248 is a losing strategy, but it’s the only way I can think of to bring users to the website.”

Paid ads, Content marketing bankstatementconverter.com, Angus Cheng, February 2022

The founders built lists of hundreds of prospects from Product Hunt and Twitter and cold-emailed them asking for feedback, and shared progress publicly. A Product Hunt launch later doubled the user base.

Reported: 184 users and $64 MRR by October 2020; about 1,500 users before Product Hunt; doubled to about 3,000 after

“We scanned Product Hunt and Twitter and made lists of hundreds of prospects and started doing cold outreach, asking for their feedback.”

Cold outreach, Communities, Launch platforms, Social media Product Hunt blog.tally.so, Marie Martens, October 2021

A Product Hunt launch brought roughly 3,000 users in a few days. Champions inside companies and a $5 referral credit carried growth from there to 20,000.

Reported: About 3,000 from Product Hunt; 3,000 to 20,000 through champions and referral credits

“First ~3k came in from Product Hunt on launch day + 1-2 days after.”

Launch platforms, Word of mouth Product Hunt lennysnewsletter.com, Shahed Khan, May 2020

Hoover started Product Hunt as an email list for friends in the startup community and invited people personally. It had 30 users on day one and 100 a week later.

Reported: 30 users on day one; 100 by the end of the first week

“By the end of the week, we had 100 users and felt ready to share Product Hunt with the world.”

Communities, Word of mouth lennysnewsletter.com, Ryan Hoover, May 2020

After testing with friends' companies, Slack opened a preview request form backed by press coverage. It drew 8,000 requests on the first day and 15,000 within two weeks.

Reported: 8,000 invite requests on day one; 15,000 within 2 weeks

“On the first day, 8,000 people did just that; and two weeks later, that number had grown to 15,000.”

Press, A waitlist, Word of mouth lennysnewsletter.com, Stewart Butterfield, May 2020

Vohra wrote an article on surviving an acquisition, timed to the Mailbox shutdown, and got it syndicated to Quartz. Four days of work on that one piece brought more than 5,000 signups.

Reported: About 3 days writing and 1 day pitching one article; 5,000+ signups

“But those four days bought north of 5,000 signups.”

Press, Content marketing, A waitlist lennysnewsletter.com, Rahul Vohra, May 2020

The founders invited former PayPal coworkers, who invited their own friends. That gave Yelp roughly its first 1,000 users.

Reported: About 1,000 users within two degrees of the founders' network

“two-degrees out we probably got to 1k or so users”

Word of mouth lennysnewsletter.com, Russel Simmons, May 2020

With no prelaunch list, the founders sent Facebook and Google ad traffic to a new weighted blanket store. The first 100 units sold out in 20 days, well ahead of their three-month target.

Reported: 3 orders on launch day; 100 units sold out in 20 days; £10,000 launch budget

“After 20 days we were completely sold out - there was a market for it!”

Paid ads starterstory.com, Abeer Iqbal, March 2020

The first five clients of this outbound sales agency were startups sharing their coworking space. Referrals and a merger with a training business then carried them toward 100.

Reported: 5 customers from a coworking space; referrals took it to 7, then 25; a merger brought about 200 leads

“some of the other entrepreneurs in the co-working space we shared needed help with outbound sales.”

Something else, Word of mouth, Partnerships propellercrm.com, Collin Stewart, July 2019

The team picked 10 Greek houses in Michigan, flew there and pitched them in person week after week. Over that period the team talked to about 10,000 students.

Reported: 10 fraternities and sororities in Michigan; about 10,000 students talked to

“We targeted 10 of them in Michigan, flew there, & pitched them week by week.”

Something else suhaild.medium.com, Ben Rubin, June 2018

To supply a student housing marketplace in Istanbul, the founders knocked on doors in several districts to sign up hosts. They also offered airport pickups to make the first guests talk about them.

Reported: Goal of 100 hosts recruited door to door

“Day by day we were knocking on random people’s doors in the streets of Beyoglu, Kadikoy and Sisli.”

Something else medium.com, CJ Koseoglu, January 2016

The founders of a shared-house chores app posted on Reddit asking for feedback instead of promoting it. The threads drove 1,000 users within three weeks of launch.

Reported: 1,000 users in about 3 weeks; posts drew 105 and 58 comments; 3,000 downloads

“Don’t promote things on reddit. Think of it as a platform to get feedback.”

Communities smartcompany.com.au, Jules Malseed-Harris, March 2014

The studio built a social following before launch and pitched app review sites. Reviews in AppAdvice, Pocket Gamer and App Spy drove most of the 1,000+ launch-day downloads.

Reported: About 5,000 Facebook fans and 3,000 Twitter followers before launch; 1,000+ launch-day downloads; 300 a day afterwards

“The reviews the studio scored in AppAdvice, Pocket Gamer and App Spy contributed to the vast majority of its downloads”

Press, Social media, Communities indiegamegirl.com, Ryan Martin, March 2014

He built a 795-person email list from blog posts and Twitter during the three months he spent writing the book. Emailing that list on launch day brought in $1,000 in ten minutes.

Reported: 795-person prelaunch list; $1,000 in 10 minutes; $6,469.90 on launch day; about 600 visits from Hacker News

“I’ve been working on it for 3 months and had built up a pre-launch list of 795 people.”

A waitlist, Content marketing, Social media, Launch platforms Hacker News nathanbarry.com, Nathan Barry, September 2012

He tweeted a landing page to test demand, then added a fake pricing page to test willingness to pay before building. The rough first version got a paying customer within four days.

Reported: First paying customer 4 days after launch; 500 users; about 4% upgraded to paid

“I had my first paying customer within 4 days of launching the “rough around the edges” product.”

A waitlist, Social media, Launch platforms buffer.com, Joel Gascoigne, February 2011

He launched a downloadable bingo card program for teachers and drove traffic with a small ad budget. The first sale came two weeks after launch and covered most of a month of ads.

Reported: First sale 2 weeks and 1 day after launch; $23.93 profit, about 80% of the first month's ad budget

“For those keeping track, thats two weeks and a day after launch.”

Paid ads kalzumeus.com, Patrick McKenzie, July 2006

He spent months before launch sending 100 LinkedIn requests a day and lining up sales influencers to promote the product. By launch day he had 2,400 people on the list and nearly 1,000 demos booked.

Reported: 2,400 on the waitlist; nearly 1,000 demos booked by launch day; 15+ influencers with about 500,000 combined reach; 100 LinkedIn connection requests a day

“By launch day, he had 2,400 people on his list and nearly 1,000 demos booked.”

A waitlist, Partnerships, Social media saasclub.io, Shawn Finder

The founder of a Slack book club app posted on Hacker News and hit second place within half an hour. That one post brought 320 signups at a 6.8% conversion rate.

Reported: #2 on Hacker News; 4.7k visitors and 320 signups on day one; 5.8k visitors and 402 signups after a week

“Within ~30 minutes, the post hit #2 on the front page and stayed between #2–4 for about 4–5 hours”

Launch platforms Hacker News reddit.com

The team spent $5k to $6k on a booth at an industry conference before the product was finished. Two prospects met there became the first paying customers.

Reported: $5k to $6k for a booth at Affiliate Summit; 2 customers

“we actually were able to get two prospects from that that became customers”

Something else saasclub.io, Sam Darawish

The founder of an AI investing chatbot skipped big subreddits and posted in small subreddits, mid-sized Discords and Facebook investing groups, plus direct messages. This reached 1,000 users in a month without spending money.

Reported: 1,000 users in a month on a $0 budget; subreddits under 10,000 members; Discords around 5,000 members

“For me, it was small subreddits (<10,000 members), medium sized discords (~5,000 users), and Facebook investing groups.”

Cold outreach, Communities reddit.com

She turned an existing beauty meme account into the brand account and messaged every new follower with a personal discount code. DMs alone sold through the first inventory batch before Facebook ads took over.

Reported: First order of 100 lashes at about $3 each; up to 8 hours a day of Instagram DMs; passed a $10K first-month goal

“First sales came entirely from Ann personally DMing every new Instagram follower with a custom Shopify discount code, up to 8 hours a day.”

Social media mywifequitherjob.com, Ann McFerran

The founder sent hundreds of manual messages offering demos, ran outbound with an 11% reply rate and wrote a LinkedIn post that converted 30 paying customers. Referrals added 18 more on the way to 100 in four months.

Reported: 100 customers in 4 months; 11% reply rate on outreach; one LinkedIn post led to 30 paying; 18 from referrals

“I manually messaged hundreds of individuals offering demos. This landed our next 10 customers.”

Cold outreach, Communities, Social media, Partnerships mucker.com, Gaurav Bhattacharya

A Hacker News launch of an LLM prompt playground brought over 6,000 visits and about 80 signups but no paying customers. The founder concluded HN tests curiosity, not fit.

Reported: 6,000+ visits; about 200 tried it; about 80 signups; 0 paying customers from the launch

“HN validates curiosity, not fit. Treat it as an attention test, then prove activation on a narrower ICP.”

Launch platforms, Communities Hacker News reddit.com

He presold an online course to his newsletter and Twitter audience before building it, and a Webflow feature helped spread it. Pre-orders passed $1,000 within six hours.

Reported: 53 pre-orders and $1,073 in 6 hours; $6,622 in 5 days

“53 pre-orders, $1073 sales in 6 hours”

Content marketing, Partnerships, Social media preetamnath.com, Preetam Nath

A Show HN post for this developer tool reached sixth on the front page. The resulting 5,200 visits more than doubled the user base with over 100 signups.

Reported: #6 on the Hacker News front page; 5.2K unique visits; 100+ signups

“These 5.2K unique visits turned into over 100 new signups (and counting), which is more than double the size of our existing user base.”

Launch platforms Hacker News blog.reflame.app

He answered sales questions on Quora, which brought the very first customer. A later Product Hunt launch produced 600 signups in two days.

Reported: First customer via Quora; 600 signups in 2 days from Product Hunt

“used Quora to land his very first customer, and launched on Product Hunt to get 600 signups in two days”

Communities, Launch platforms Product Hunt saasclub.io, Oleg Campbell

After validating demand with a $100 AdWords test, he searched Twitter daily for people struggling to sell digital products and replied to them. A month of this produced two paying customers.

Reported: $100 AdWords validation test; 1 to 2 tweets a day for a month; 2 customers on the $9 and $15 plans

“After a month of this, he had two paying customers - one on the $9 plan and one on the $15 plan.”

Social media, Cold outreach saasclub.io, George Palmer

Paid search proved far too expensive for this collaboration tool, so the team leaned on press and existing users. Referrals ended up bringing about 80% of the first 100 paying customers.

Reported: AdWords cost €240 to €300 per test user; about 80% of the first 100 customers came from referrals

“almost 80% of our first 100 customers came through referrals.”

Word of mouth, Press reddit.com

The founders sent cold LinkedIn messages asking to learn about a problem, held question-only discovery calls and came back a week later with a working solution. This sold the product before it was built and reached $1M ARR in about six months.

Reported: $1M ARR in about 6 months

“So we did the normal LinkedIn outreach discovery call strategy to win our very first clients here.”

Cold outreach saasclub.io, Julius Körfgen

The founders asked every small business they dealt with in daily life, like their kids' swim class and a flower shop, who ran their payroll. They signed up the ones who had no provider.

“We had a flower shop where Eddie was buying flowers, and he asked her, ‘Who do you use for payroll?’”

Cold outreach review.firstround.com, Tomer London, January 2026

Before they had sellers, the founders listed collectibles they did not own and bought them on eBay once a buyer paid. This let buyers transact on the marketplace before real supply existed.

“the founders would list products on Whatnot that they didn’t have (i.e. fake listing), and when the item would sell, they’d purchase it on eBay.”

Something else ycombinator.com, Grant LaFontaine, September 2022

The team stuffed a very long, keyword-heavy name into the App Store title, which the store's search weighted heavily. Search traffic gave them their first users.

“There was a secret in the app store. You could make the application name really really long.”

App Store search lennysnewsletter.com, Alex Zhu, May 2020