Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#231

Post by jrvarela56 » Tue, May 13, 2025, 5:56 PM UTC

amanchanda wrote: post #20

jrvarela56 wrote: post #11

First 100 users, meet them one by one wherever you can (forums, friends, ex-coworkers) and call them to talk to them and help them out with onboarding if needed. Straight up cold outreach and warm intros. Next 500 will most likely come from referrals if these first 100 users are happy. Apply this logic to the jump from 20 to 100 if it makes the task less daunting for you.

Ok. Makes sense. So basically, what we are doing, you want us to scale that. Correct?

Your current approach has specific techniques I would remove altogether to focus on the core interaction between you and the user: talk to so many of them so often that you truly understand their problem and how they shop for a solution.

Once you understand that and make them happy, you’ll come up with ideas to experiment how to get more users.

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#232

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 13, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

ednite wrote: post #168

d0liver wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard was it to get the partnership? Was that cold outreach, too?

Not cold—more like soft outreach. It happened at a social event through mutual friends. Classic “So, what do you do?” convo. I said software dev. They said, “Ugh, we use this tool—it’s garbage.” I listened (an underrated superpower), realized I could actually fix the problem, and suggested a meetup. One Zoom meeting later, we had the foundation of a partnership. Honestly, it could’ve been any event. Just show up, be…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#233

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 13, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

adammarples wrote: post #150

ednite wrote: post #149

For my SaaS, the first 100 users were almost too easy. I partnered with a company sitting on thousands of clients and offered my tool—free—to just 10% of their list. But I didn’t sell features. I asked what their clients hated most, then built a fix for that. One well-placed feature, and the doors swung open. Real users, real feedback—and we’re still building on that foundation. Then there’s my blog. A creative sandb…

an idea might be providing a link to the blog

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#234

Post by free-nachos » Tue, May 13, 2025, 6:08 PM UTC

gethly wrote: post #188

Cold calling seems the be the prevalent approach, which is also mine. Though I am struggling with time. On one hand, I know I need to reach out to potential customers, on the other hand I need/want to work on the product. So not only is my time limited but also I don't like to shift my focus elsewhere. I wonder if it would make sense to hire someone, some student, to do the outreach for me. Paid per contact and then…

Not only is it making your first impression, it's also your best opportunity to get candid feedback, observe what positioning resonates with your audience, and create your playbook for working through objections.

You mentioned time is your biggest constraint, and that you need to work on the product.

Is there a milestone where your product will have enough features that you can shift to spending half your time acquiring customers?

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#235

Post by antidumbass » Tue, May 13, 2025, 6:10 PM UTC

oulipo wrote: post #104

I'm doing a hardware startup (the first repairable e-bike battery, https://gouach.com if you're interested) and we got users by doing an Indiegogo :)

Your silvery cylindrical cell contacts are not beating the contact-resistance-driven-fire allegations.

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#236

Post by mathrawka » Tue, May 13, 2025, 6:11 PM UTC

kats wrote: post #229

ednite wrote: post #149

For my SaaS, the first 100 users were almost too easy. I partnered with a company sitting on thousands of clients and offered my tool—free—to just 10% of their list. But I didn’t sell features. I asked what their clients hated most, then built a fix for that. One well-placed feature, and the doors swung open. Real users, real feedback—and we’re still building on that foundation. Then there’s my blog. A creative sandb…

Why did you write this using AI?

Gotta drive traffic to that blog of AI generated posts somehow

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#237

Post by kristopolous » Tue, May 13, 2025, 6:15 PM UTC

kats wrote: post #229

ednite wrote: post #149

For my SaaS, the first 100 users were almost too easy. I partnered with a company sitting on thousands of clients and offered my tool—free—to just 10% of their list. But I didn’t sell features. I asked what their clients hated most, then built a fix for that. One well-placed feature, and the doors swung open. Real users, real feedback—and we’re still building on that foundation. Then there’s my blog. A creative sandb…

Why did you write this using AI?

I think this person genuinely writes like an llm. Read the rest of their comments.

My llm radar picks it up as well.

A reverse uncanny valley

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#238

Post by pc86 » Tue, May 13, 2025, 6:20 PM UTC

conductr wrote: post #201

pc86 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a grift in the negative sense but this is absolutely a marketing comment. They're doing exactly what they say to do in the comment. They're on HN where at least some of their target market is. They have a product that is relevant (right down to the headline/CTA). They didn't just post the link but put it at the end of an informational comment. 10/10 meta-promotion IMO

They also likely were involved in the the original question getting posted so they could provide that answer which is what makes it an entirely fabricated grift

You need evidence to reasonably say they were "likely involved" and I don't think "it's conceivable that it happened that way" really counts as evidence.

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#239

Post by mbrameld » Tue, May 13, 2025, 6:22 PM UTC

kristopolous wrote: post #237

kats wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you write this using AI?

I think this person genuinely writes like an llm. Read the rest of their comments. My llm radar picks it up as well. A reverse uncanny valley

Is it just the list? I'm curious what specifically sets off your llm radar.

Re: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

#240

Post by cardoni » Tue, May 13, 2025, 6:23 PM UTC

kristopolous wrote: post #237

kats wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you write this using AI?

I think this person genuinely writes like an llm. Read the rest of their comments. My llm radar picks it up as well. A reverse uncanny valley

What made your radar go off? The em-dashes? As a lover/user of em-dashes myself, I'm curious to learn more about what you think "llm text" looks like in your head radar detector unit. :)