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Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

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Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#161

Post by amackera »

cylinder wrote: post #141
smaddox wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, but commission-based recruiting seems to incentivise the wrong kind of recruiting, i.e. "find someone we can shove down their throat". I would personally rather pay an experienced recruiter by the hour, even if it meant fewer (hopefully higher quality) leads.

I agree, but the incentive for hourly is to wait as long as possible to introduce the candidate, right?

I think the idea behind hourly is to provide the best "bang for their buck". If your clients feel cheated, they will fire you.

Evidently OP did a good job, and made them feel like they were getting high value.

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#162

Post by titel »

starikovs wrote: post #130
interdrift wrote: post #28

I think building an amazing product is the way to get them automatically.

If you have an amazing product you can start from http://www.appsumo.com :-)

Do you have more information on that? Did you do a deal with Appsumo before? What are usually the terms for such a deal?

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#164

Post by jorgeleo »

chrischen wrote: post #63

Treat your business like a consulting service, and treat whatever technology you have not as the end product but as a tool you use to provide whatever service you are providing at higher quality or at lower costs. Essentially the "do things that don't scale" advice is just this. It puts your technology at the backseat.

I am curious, what is your personal experience with this approach? can you elaborate?

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#165

Post by Mz »

jaredklewis wrote: post #111
dkarl wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

offering to build (tiny! like, 5-minute one-offs!) features _just for them_ sort of blows their minds How did you manage to do that without making it impossible to add major new functionality to your app? Did you nail the basic functionality of the app from the starting gate and go straight into maintenance/feature-tweaking mode? meticulous hand-holding through the first few weeks usually convinces them to stick arou…

If we are choosing between the problems of: A) Having users, with high expectations B) Not having users Problem A is a way better problem to have. Of course, no business would intentionally try to cultivate a user base of picky, high maintenance pain-in-the-necks. Nor would it be anyone's long term goal to be hacking on user requested features. But if those things bring users, easy trade. It's hard to think of any pr…

It's hard to think of any problem that would be more important than the problem of not having users.

Having a rabid crowd that wants your head on a pike comes to mind. But if that doesn't apply, then your advice is sound.

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#166

Post by developer2 »

cmorelli wrote: post #112
dkarl wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

offering to build (tiny! like, 5-minute one-offs!) features _just for them_ sort of blows their minds How did you manage to do that without making it impossible to add major new functionality to your app? Did you nail the basic functionality of the app from the starting gate and go straight into maintenance/feature-tweaking mode? meticulous hand-holding through the first few weeks usually convinces them to stick arou…

offering to build (tiny! like, 5-minute one-offs!) features _just for them_ sort of blows their minds It seems worth noting that this can also be a dangerous strategy. It's really easy to fall into the trap of giving each customer exactly what they ask for, rather than learning what they actually need. If gone unchecked, this is the sort of product strategy that easily leads to disastrous results for product usabilit…

A mitigation strategy here is to delay implementing any new feature for a single customer, in order to query your other customers as to whether they need the same or similar feature. Oftentimes you will find other customers who are interested, even if their exact needs are slightly different from the first customer's request.

Best case scenario you get to build the feature once, based on a spec that fits the needs of a larger pool of customers. This reduces the overhead of more customers inevitably requesting similar features weeks or months down the line.

Worst case scenario you still wind up releasing a feature that only one customer is going to use. At least you've tried your best to fold more customers' needs into a single unit of work. Better to have asked and found no takers than to have not asked and wound up with repeated requests for similar features once it's too late to combine the work.

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#168

Post by shanecleveland »

cmorelli wrote: post #112
dkarl wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

offering to build (tiny! like, 5-minute one-offs!) features _just for them_ sort of blows their minds How did you manage to do that without making it impossible to add major new functionality to your app? Did you nail the basic functionality of the app from the starting gate and go straight into maintenance/feature-tweaking mode? meticulous hand-holding through the first few weeks usually convinces them to stick arou…

offering to build (tiny! like, 5-minute one-offs!) features _just for them_ sort of blows their minds It seems worth noting that this can also be a dangerous strategy. It's really easy to fall into the trap of giving each customer exactly what they ask for, rather than learning what they actually need. If gone unchecked, this is the sort of product strategy that easily leads to disastrous results for product usabilit…

Very good points about avoiding support and customer service traps that you can't back out of. But I think in the context of how to "acquire your first 100 users," trying things that don't scale may be worth the risk. There's limits, I'm sure.

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#169

Post by siquick »

anacleto wrote: post #35

My go-to list: 1. Launch your product on BetaList 2. Create a blog and write a lot. Don't create trivial content. SEO is important but write because you have interesting things to talk about, not because you have to create "content". 3. Share as much as you can on twitter/Slack/FB groups. But never be spammy. 4. Being actively engaged on Twitter (yes!) by regularily searching for your main 1-3 keywords. 5. Start soon…

>>Don't start with Ads prematurely. No matter what the platform is. The don't pay initially and will cost you a lot.

If you're still in the validation stage and want to identify if you do have an idea that people want and can iterate fast, then ads are a surefire way to get people to your site (as long as you're targeting the right people).

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