I am running a small AI company that has been building an offline security audit app, simply a fine-tuned small language model powering an Electron app that can audit GitHub and local code repos for security stuff. I always see these LinkedIn or X guys making $500k ARR or $1m ARR within months; how the fkk do they get that many customers without spending on ads? I can't even get 5 customers; damn it, I do suck at sales
How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
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Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#2How do you know they’re not lying? Words are free.
Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#3Is it because I live in a remote place in India and don't have connections to SF companies, like they have companies in the backyard that raised 100 million and can easily make money? This stuff has been bothering me for years!! What am I missing?
Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#4How do you know they’re not lying? Words are free.
thats true, but many are genuine btw
Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#5[flagged]
Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#6Is it because I live in a remote place in India and don't have connections to SF companies, like they have companies in the backyard that raised 100 million and can easily make money? This stuff has been bothering me for years!! What am I missing?
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Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#7They cannibalize their social group. For example, they will make a lot of immediate small deals with other people in their cohort, incubator, or investor circle, and then use these deals to get to their next round of investment. Functionally those early sales are just there for signal.
That or they just lie on socials.
Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#8To my estimation, you are in B2B, competing with the likes of Wiz. Those with $500k ARR are usually "ad forwarding" or "networking" companies. Think about how you distribute your software, that's probably more important than your current features.
Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#9How much you want? $1M? $10M?
I could easily give you that title. Or maybe you can even do that yourself.
Lots of new companies are either faked, or amplified.
Example: If I made a sale of $100 this hour, it can become $864K ARR, with amplification (100 x 24 x 30 x 12).
What to do? Focus on your job and forget everybody else. Don't ever judge progress by revenue alone. A low revenue company who invents something in energy could be worth all companies exist today. But you never hear about it, because it is the real stuff.
Re: How SaaS startup guys get first 100 customers first, make fkn $500k ARR fast?
#10You need to set up a methodical go-to-market process.
You can automate some of it, but it's good to start manually and learn the ropes first.
You need to understand who your ideal customer is and what channels are they on.
Linkedin is a common one for b2b sales.
If you make 200 connections on linkedin every week and send them a message, some % of that will convert to meetings and sales (the exact % depends on your audience, message, and how urgent the pain you're solving is)
It is extremely hard at start, especially for engineer types (like myself)
Fortunately, it's a skill like any other that can be learned.
Read this article for more info https://x.com/namanyayg/status/2097783972302557668?s=46