Your first 10 customers,
without an audience

Andrew Chen — a16z

"Pick ONE channel that gets you to 1,000 users before you optimize anything. Spray-and-pray loses."

Use when: You can identify ONE dense channel where your ICP clusters (a specific subreddit, a niche Slack, an industry Discord). Then go all-in on it for 90 days.

Justin Welsh — Solopreneur Playbook

"You don't need an audience. You need 10 people who feel personally seen by your product. Find them by hand."

Use when: You're under 100 followers everywhere. 30 hand-crafted DMs convert better than 3,000 tweets. Charge $99-299 for a paid pilot — real money filters real buyers.

Hiten Shah — FYI · KISSmetrics

"Go where your customers are already talking about the problem. Don't try to teach them they have one — find the ones already complaining."

Apply when: Your problem space has active community discussion (subreddits, Discord servers, niche forums). Comment with value, then DM.

Pat Walls — Starter Story

"Product Hunt is for credibility, not customers. The 100 superfans you build in the 3 weeks before launch matter more than launch day itself."

Apply when: You have a prosumer/SaaS product and 4+ weeks of runway. PH only works if you've pre-built relationships — otherwise it's a flash with no afterburn.

Andrew Chen — The Cold Start Problem

"Don't optimize until you've hit your tipping point — usually 1,000 engaged users. Below that, you're optimizing noise."

Apply when: Channel signals are noisy. Don't A/B test landing pages with 12 visitors — keep doing manual outreach until volume justifies measurement.

Lenny Rachitsky — Lenny's Newsletter

"At 100 paying customers, install the activation metric. Below 100, the metric is 'did I talk to humans this week.' Above 100, it's funnel math."

Apply when: You've crossed 100 paying. Switch from conversation-driven sales to metric-driven optimization. Below 100, this is premature.