🚀 Forget everything you've been told about fancy marketing plans, large ad campaigns, and hoping to go viral. According to Y Combinator's brutally simple playbook, the real secret to landing your first 100 customers is to do things that don't scale. In this post, we break down exactly what that means and how you can apply this powerful framework to grow your own startup.
👋 Hey, my name is Arjun Mahadavan, CEO and founder of doula.com, a Y Combinator-backed venture-backed startup in New York City that's raised over $13 million. Today I'm going to explain what it means to "do things that don't scale" and how Doula actually did this to acquire our first 100 customers. I'll also give you a playbook for how you can use this to acquire your first 100—or if you're at 100 already, you can use this playbook to get to 1,000 and beyond.
💡 I remember when we first started Doula, I thought we needed some fancy marketing plan or large ad campaigns to get our first customer. But you want to know the truth? The way we actually found our first customer was through a Twitter DM. I blasted DMs to a bunch of people, and then someone in my network actually said, "Wait, we know someone who needs to form a company from France." We ended up forming a company with them. They ended up being the first startup we worked with.
🎯 The huge lesson I had there was that often times—and there's this really famous story in YC that they call the Collison install—this is what the Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison did. They would actually walk around with a laptop and they would call it the Collison install or the Collison bomb, where they would say, "Here's the laptop," and then just pop it down next to someone and sign them up for Stripe on the spot.
⚔️ That isn't ads. That isn't virality. That isn't SEO. That's trench warfare. That's rolling up your sleeves. That's getting in the DMs. That's going out to an event and doing things that don't scale.
💫 So, the takeaway here right off the bat is: doing things that don't scale is quite literally doing things that when you think of it, you're like, "I can't do this forever." But that's okay. You don't need to do it forever. You only need to do it to get the first 100 customers. Because the truth is, when you're starting, you don't have the website. You don't have the fundraising. All you have is your hustle. That is the only way you can differentiate yourself from the competition.
🎯 So, our version of that was sliding in the DMs on X through our immediate network. The Stripe brothers, their version of this was tapping their laptop and signing someone up for Stripe. I want you to think: if you're trying to get that first 100 customers, what is that scrappy, roll-up-your-sleeves thing that you can do?
✨ Scrappy Ideas That Work:
- 🚪 Going door to door and knocking on doors
- 📞 Picking up the phone and pressing call
- 📧 Sending cold emails
- 💬 Sending DMs on social media platforms
- 🏙️ Going to Times Square and asking people to start LLC's (I actually did this - we got two people!)
🔥 At the end of the day, if it scares you and feels like it doesn't scale, that actually probably is the best thing to do when you're starting.
🎯 So, I hope that story resonated and puts you in the right frame of mind. Now, let me actually give you a framework. This is actually the technical playbook that I would have followed if I could go back in time, but this is how I would think about doing things that don't scale and actually tactically getting these first customers.
🏜️ Step 1: Go to Where Your Users Feel Pain (The Watering Hole)
I think of this as the watering hole. Let's say you're in a desert. If you want to find the animals, you could start to just go in different directions and look and take binoculars. Or the easiest thing you can do is go find the watering hole because you know every animal in the desert is going to need to go drink water at some point.
So go to where your users feel the pain. Where are they drinking water?
📍 Where to Look:
- 👥 Online communities
- 📬 Newsletters they subscribe to
- 💬 YouTube comment sections
- 🔴 Subreddits
- ☕ In-person coffee shops or communities
🎯 The Why: Don't go to try and create demand. That's too hard up front. Find where the demand is aggregated. Remember, watering hole, not going to venture in the desert.
⚡ Quick Win: Literally go to a subreddit, type in what your company's doing on Reddit, and you can likely find people who are facing that exact problem.
🎓 Step 2: Become the Expert, Not the Salesperson
Solve their problem. So, tactically, the what here is you don't need to be shilling or pitching your product. Just provide value. Answer their question. And then, if your social media profile is optimized or after you've provided value, you can say, "By the way, do you want me to do this for you?" you're very likely to actually have that person say, "Why didn't you say that earlier? Of course, I'd like to use you."
🎯 The Why: You build trust up front. You deliver value. And even if the person doesn't purchase, you've figured out the reps. You figured out the questions they asked. You figured out the objections they asked, and you can use that to parlay it into future customer calls.
⚡ Quick Win: Go provide some value today. Go onto a Reddit post. Go on to social media. Just provide value.
🎁 Step 3: Make a Founding Members Killer Offer
I think of this as giving your personal sale. And I use that as an example because this is exactly what we did with the first customers. We didn't have the money to compete with bigger companies. We had a crappy website. We had a couple people. So what I did was I told customers, "Here's my personal WhatsApp number. You can message me if you have problems. Show me a larger company where the CEO is literally offering to give their phone number for support." That's right. No one does that. So that is how you can get an edge.
Give a killer offer and that offer doesn't have to be monetary. You don't have to discount your value but you can do things and win through hustle. So literally I knew almost all of the first customers 100 plus by name because they were all in my WhatsApp. That's how I did customer support. I would deal with the customer right there. That is the level of doing things which don't scale which makes an early stage customer choose you when you don't have the money, the resources, the fancy website etc.
💡 Killer Offer Ideas:
- 📱 Your personal phone number for support
- ⚡ Same-day service guarantees
- 🎯 Personalized onboarding sessions
- 🤝 Direct access to founders
- 🔧 Custom features for early adopters
There are many ways to do this, but I actually think just giving access is a huge one.
🎯 Quick Recap
- 🏜️ Find the watering hole. Where do your users hang out?
- 🎓 You don't need to be good at sales. You have to be good at solving problems.
- 🎁 What is that killer offer you can make? What's the version of giving your cell phone to a customer? Do that thing. It should scare you, but it will work.
🙏 Thank you so much. If you found value in this, please like, subscribe, turn on notifications. I put out content like this every single week and I share behind-the-scenes looks of what it's like building Doula. I can share behind-the-scenes looks of our Y Combinator journey. Actually, if you have any questions, comment down below. I'm an open book. I want you to learn from the mistakes we've made to help you succeed.
💼 Lastly, if you yourself are scaling a business and you have any questions or you want someone to help you with your back office, this is exactly why we started Doula. Formation, bookkeeping, taxes is all in one place so you can focus on what you do best while Doula handles the rest. Once again, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
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