How To Get Your First Users

Launching a new product requires finding early adopters who are willing to take a chance on an unproven idea. The key is to develop a "minimum evolvable product" that can survive initial user interactions and adapt based on their feedback. Early adopters, like Gustaf from Airbnb, are crucial as they offer valuable insights that drive product evolution. Entrepreneurs should focus on targeted outreach, charge for their product to gain sharper feedback, and embrace experimentation without fearing churn. The path a product takes is heavily influenced by its initial users, as seen with Tesla's evolution from the Roadster to the Model Y.

• Launching a new product involves finding initial users who are willing to try something new.
• Most people are not early adopters, making it challenging to find those first customers.
• The initial version of a product should be able to evolve based on early user feedback.

"How do you get a new product off the ground? And when you're just starting out, where do those first real users actually come from?"

• This quote introduces the challenge of finding initial users for a new product, highlighting the difficulty in getting started.

• Early adopters are crucial for the initial success of a product.
• They are often individuals who enjoy experimenting with new technologies or have specific problems that need solving.
• Early adopters can be found in professional environments where innovation is encouraged.

"Before you get discouraged, there are people who love being early adopters."

• This quote emphasizes that despite the rarity, there are individuals who actively seek out new products and innovations.

• The concept of a "minimum evolvable product" is introduced, which focuses on creating a version of the product that can adapt and improve over time.
• This approach is distinct from the traditional "minimum viable product," as it emphasizes evolution and adaptation based on user feedback.

"You're not building the final form. You're building something that can evolve."

• This quote explains the importance of designing a product that can grow and change, rather than aiming for a perfect initial version.

• The process of finding initial users is more about searching for the right people than persuading them.
• Individuals with pressing needs or those who are enthusiastic about innovation are potential first users.
• Personal networks and professional connections can be valuable in identifying these early adopters.

"The lesson is simple. Finding your first users is more of a search problem than a persuasion problem."

• This quote highlights the strategy of focusing on identifying the right users rather than trying to convince a broad audience to adopt the product.

• A personal anecdote illustrates the process of becoming an early adopter due to a pressing need.
• The speaker's team needed a quick solution and chose a startup's product, becoming their first customer.
• This decision was driven by the urgency of solving a problem, rather than the startup's reputation.

"For example, when my team needed to ship our first inference API, we wanted to ship it fast and didn't want to deal with figuring out billing or public endpoint."

• This quote provides a real-world example of how a pressing need led to the adoption of a new product, demonstrating the practical application of the discussed concepts.

• Early adopters are crucial for the initial phase of product development as they are willing to try new things and have a pressing need that your product can solve.
• These individuals are not typically sensitive to pricing, making them ideal candidates for providing valuable feedback.
• Engaging with paying customers rather than offering free trials leads to more constructive and honest feedback.

"Charge real money early. Early adopters and people with a burning problem are rarely price sensitive."

• Charging money from the start ensures that feedback comes from invested users who are more likely to provide insightful critiques.

• The primary goal with early adopters is obtaining feedback rather than generating revenue.
• Feedback from paying customers is typically sharper and more valuable than from those using free versions.

"The goal here isn't revenue, it's feedback, and paying customers give sharper feedback than free users ever will."

• Prioritizing feedback over revenue helps refine the product based on the needs and reactions of engaged users.

• Effective methods for reaching early adopters differ from traditional marketing techniques; personalized approaches are more successful.
• Strategies like targeted cold emails or direct engagement are more effective than broad-spectrum advertising methods like billboards.

"Use targeted personal outreach. The ways you find these people probably don't look like how you find normal people."

• Personalized outreach is crucial for connecting with early adopters who are more likely to engage with niche or innovative products.

• Launching early is emphasized to maximize the chances of connecting with early adopters.
• Early launches allow for a broad exposure to potential users who can provide critical insights.

"Launch early. This is something YC has preached from the beginning. In the early days, you don't know much about who these early users are."

• Early exposure is essential for identifying and understanding the characteristics and needs of early adopters.

• It's important to study early users closely, akin to an anthropologist observing a new civilization, to understand their decision-making and trust-building processes.
• Understanding their behavior and motivations is key to refining the product to better meet their needs.

"Study your early users closely. You should be like an anthropologist that's discovered a hidden civilization."

• Detailed analysis of early user behavior provides insights into product improvement and user experience enhancement.

• Constant experimentation with various aspects of the product, such as pricing and features, is encouraged to find the optimal configuration that meets user needs.
• Losing some users (churn) is not a concern; the focus should be on learning and improving from each interaction.

"Experiment fast and don't fear churn. You should be running constant experiments, pricing, landing pages, onboarding, features, everything."

• Rapid experimentation and learning from user churn are essential for evolving the product and improving user satisfaction.

"If you annoy someone, you can usually fix it because the relationship is personal. And if they churn, that's fine, too."

• Personal relationships with users allow for rectifying issues, and churn is seen as an opportunity to learn and improve.

• Startups have the advantage of operating under the radar, allowing them to experiment without the pressure of public scrutiny.
• They are more focused on avoiding irrelevance rather than making headlines, which shapes their initial target audience and product development.
• The financial constraints of personal software spending highlight the challenges consumer apps face in monetizing AI technologies.

"When you run a bad experiment, no one writes about it. You're fighting irrelevance, not headlines."

• Startups can experiment without the fear of negative publicity, focusing on staying relevant rather than achieving instant fame.

"Most people don't pay for a bunch of consumer apps. The average personal software spend is pretty tiny."

• Consumer apps face challenges in monetization due to limited personal spending on software, affecting the viability of AI-driven consumer products.

• The disparity between personal and corporate spending on software is significant, impacting the strategies of AI startups.
• Consumer apps often struggle with ad revenue not covering AI costs, forcing startups to consider alternative monetization strategies like targeting businesses or high-value users.

"For example, mine's about $150 a month total. Meanwhile, my corporate card has multiple tools that each cost more than that alone."

• The speaker highlights the stark difference in personal versus corporate software expenditure, indicating why AI startups may pivot towards business solutions.

• Early users are crucial in providing feedback and influencing the product's evolution, akin to an evolutionary process.
• Startups must strategically choose their initial user base, as these users help shape the future direction and complexity of the product.

"Your early users don't just give you feedback. They end up steering how your product evolves over time."

• Early adopters play a pivotal role beyond feedback, actively guiding the product's development and market fit.

• The analogy compares startups to a phylogenetic tree, where products evolve from simple to complex entities.
• This evolutionary process involves adapting to external pressures and refining the product based on user interaction and market demands.

"Think of a startup as a phoggenetic tree. The root nodes in amoeba and the leaf nodes are complex multisellular organisms like humans or dogs."

• The analogy illustrates how startups start with basic functionalities and evolve into complex, mature products through continuous adaptation and feedback.

• Tesla serves as an example of a company that has undergone this evolutionary process, starting with a basic concept and evolving into a sophisticated product.
• The case study underscores the importance of strategic adaptation and user feedback in achieving product maturity and market success.

• Tesla's initial strategy with the Roadster was to create a high-margin product to fund future models, but it also aimed to attract early adopters.
• Early adopters were crucial for Tesla as they were willing to purchase an expensive, impractical car, which helped shape the company's product evolution.
• The preferences of early adopters influenced Tesla's design choices, leading to the development of vehicles with high tech and acceleration, even if it meant sacrificing comfort.

"Tesla was searching for early adopters. They wanted to find the people crazy enough to buy an impractical $150,000 car that didn't go very far, didn't fit much in it, couldn't publicly charge anywhere, and looked strange."

• This quote highlights Tesla's strategy to target early adopters who were open to innovative yet impractical products, which was critical for the company's initial growth and product development.

• Product evolution is path dependent on the preferences of early adopters, which can significantly influence the final product features.
• The evolution of Tesla's vehicles, such as the Model Y, reflects the preferences of early adopters for technology and speed over comfort.
• The concept of a minimum evolvable product is essential, as it allows the product to adapt and mature based on market feedback and pressures.

"Why does the Tesla Model Y, a mass market vehicle, have a faster 0 to 60 than a Lamborghini and better tech than a BMW, but worse suspension and comfort than a Toyota?"

• This quote illustrates how Tesla's product features are shaped by early adopters' preferences, leading to a unique combination of high performance and advanced technology at the expense of comfort.

• A minimum evolvable product is more than a minimum viable product; it is designed to adapt and evolve based on user feedback and market dynamics.
• Founders are encouraged to launch products that can survive initial user interactions and rapidly adapt to market demands.
• The initial version of a product does not need to be perfect, as it will undergo significant changes based on early adopters' influence and market evolution.

"It's why your first version shouldn't just be a minimum viable product. It should be a minimum evolvable product. Something simple that can respond to market pressures and evolve into a much more mature product."

• This quote emphasizes the importance of designing products that are flexible and capable of evolving in response to market conditions, ensuring long-term success and relevance.