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

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

#301

Post by coolcase »

supportengineer wrote: post #296
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…

>> Solve a real, hair-on-fire problem It's too bad these folks can't post somewhere in a central place, instead of us going to them and having to drag it out of them.

The emergency room?

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

#302

Post by coolcase »

vanschelven wrote: post #10

Grown way past 100 users with: • Make a great product. Everyone tells you "build it and they will come" is not working anymore, but it's working _for me_. • Outreach via your network. Talk to people with the intent of learning, not selling. • I'm personally on a freemium model. But that's in the developer-to-developer market, which is vastly different from your B2C EDIT: https://www.bugsink.com/ link to product, may…

It is as if there is no formula for startup success and you have to experiment. Like if there was a formula everyone would follow it and it would become the only way. A bit like chat up lines- these 10 words and you always get a date. Like there is no counterforces like competition and attention against a cookie recipe for startups.

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

#303

Post by ednite »

diordiderot wrote: post #274
kroogman wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another piece of feedback: ~90% seems written by ChatGPT. That is very off-putting.

The users comments all read like chatgpt. Loads of em dash. Short acknowledgement at the beginning e.g. "got it" Strange times

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I hope I don’t get grilled, or offend anyone for saying this: I use AI at every level of my work because it speeds things up—especially when it comes to grammar and sentence structure. And yes, I was overusing dashes even before ChatGPT was a thing.

I use AI for coding too. It definitely helps with speed and boilerplate, though I’ll admit it sometimes sends me deep down the rabbit hole. Still, the ideas, creativity, and decisions are my own.

For what it’s worth, the structure is AI-assisted, but the wording and ideas are entirely my own. I use whatever AI chat window or tool is open in my browser—Grammarly, Hemingway, Word or others.

I’m here to share and learn, and I hope that still comes through—Thanks again.

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

#304

Post by dang »

ednite wrote: post #303
diordiderot wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The users comments all read like chatgpt. Loads of em dash. Short acknowledgement at the beginning e.g. "got it" Strange times

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I hope I don’t get grilled, or offend anyone for saying this: I use AI at every level of my work because it speeds things up—especially when it comes to grammar and sentence structure. And yes, I was overusing dashes even before ChatGPT was a thing. I use AI for coding too. It definitely helps with speed and boilerplate, though I’ll admit it sometimes sends me deep down the rabbit ho…

Please don't post AI-generated comments, or any generated comments, to Hacker News. This is a place for conversation between humans.

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

#305

Post by ednite »

mbrameld wrote: post #268
jeffhuys wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at his blog. 0 spelling error, 2 big articles in 1 day. A LOT of —… This is just an LLM. I would be surprised if this guy writes like this. Why do you think he’s NOT an LLM?

I don't know about his blog since this is a thread about whether or not his comment is AI-generated, but I ran his comment through GPTZero and it reports it's confident the comment is entirely human. I asked Claude to summarize his comment and ran that summary through GPTZero and it reported it was confident that it's entirely AI-generated. Maybe the comment didn't set of my llm radar because I didn't draw conclusion…

Ok. I’m left speechless—but I can only comment that I’m trying to be genuine—obviously failing at an alarming rate! Yes, my blogs are edited with ChatGPT or whichever AI tool I have open, but my words and experience are my own, for what it’s worth—again, I am not an LLM agent. To be fair, I sometimes think ChatGPT writes like me. Where’s Sam when you need him? (Tasteless joke.)

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

#306

Post by vimy »

sebstefan wrote: post #125
theshrike79 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still a tiny bit better than the "massive limbs bendy people" corporate style.

It's called Corporate Memphis ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis ) Might be soulless and ugly too, but at least it doesn't make your customer think "Hold on is this a scam?"

I’m not sure seeing AI art and thinking scam is a thing. Most people can’t even spot AI art.

His website seems fine to me.

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

#307

Post by ednite »

ulfw wrote: post #294
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…

This whole account is AI fake blob. Honestly this is the way the world is deteriorating into. That blog is the biggest joke ever. Top to bottom completely just AI generated fake bla. The posts of this 13 days old account likely too. And the startup doesn't exis... sorry... 'can't be mentioned'. We just gotta go on 'trust me bro' here. Ok.

Wait—which startup are you referring to? My blog or my current SaaS project with 100 users? Both are real. The blog is just a creative outlet for me, while the SaaS is my latest dev project, in beta testing with a little over 100 users. I’ll be more than happy to share its success—or failure—with the community when the time is right (I’m rooting for success). Hope that clears up.

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

#308

Post by joeguilmette »

diordiderot wrote: post #278
rwieruch wrote: post #17

Not sure if my "products" compare to yours, but I’ve seen some success with a few of them over the years, maybe there are some takeaways (or pitfalls to avoid) for you: CloudCamping (PMS): 250+ Businesses, 2023 - Positioned as more modern, more accessible, and more affordable than the competition - Limited competition due to the complexity of the product - Personally visited campgrounds to demo the product - Sent phy…

CloudCamping's UI is beautiful. Did you use a UI framework or css library? How do you handle payments while only taking 1%? Stipe charges at least 1.5%.

my guess: pass the processing fees onto the either the consumer or provider.

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

#309

Post by ednite »

thatjoeoverthr wrote: post #275
diordiderot wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm sorry but does this not read like chatgpt output to anyone else? edit: I know a lot of ESL people use chatgpt now online so maybe thats an explaination

Yes, the "hair on fire" and "knock on doors" are signs for me.

What’s wrong with saying “hair on fire” and “knocking on doors”? Granted, I’m bald—but still, the words and thoughts are mine (even if some are structured by ChatGPT). I’ll admit my blogging skills need work, but it’s an original process, and it’s a start. Thanks for the feedback.

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

#310

Post by ednite »

dang wrote: post #304
ednite wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I hope I don’t get grilled, or offend anyone for saying this: I use AI at every level of my work because it speeds things up—especially when it comes to grammar and sentence structure. And yes, I was overusing dashes even before ChatGPT was a thing. I use AI for coding too. It definitely helps with speed and boilerplate, though I’ll admit it sometimes sends me deep down the rabbit ho…

Please don't post AI-generated comments, or any generated comments, to Hacker News. This is a place for conversation between humans.

Got it—I'm green here. My comments are human, sometimes put in AI for spelling, grammar, and structure. I will avoid AI for HN posts at all costs, and thank you for clarifying.
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