Getting your first customers: The only validation that matters

I had a session today at Antler about getting your first customers. This is hands down my favorite stage of building a business. I don’t care how many zeros follow the revenue line, nothing beats the first payment from someone who’s not your friend or family.

It’s the only validation that really matters. Not feedback. Not likes. Not pitch competitions. That first paying customer proves that someone had a problem, saw your solution, and decided it was worth money.

If you’re at this stage now (pre-revenue, no brand, no traction), this is for you.

1. Start with a stereotype

You don’t need deep persona research to begin. If you’re starting from zero, just stereotype your ideal customer. Take an educated guess based on your market. Age, job title, pain points, tools they use, things they’ve probably tried and failed with.

You’re not committing to it long-term. It’s just a placeholder so you can start. You’ll replace it quickly as real data comes in, but you can’t iterate on silence. Better to be wrong and adjusting than stuck waiting for a perfect persona.

2. The questions you ask will make or break you

If you’re not reading The Mom Test, you’re wasting conversations. Most early-stage teams ask customers things like “Would you use this?” or “Do you like the idea?” These are useless questions. People will lie to protect your feelings or avoid awkwardness.

Instead, ask questions about past behavior, not future intentions.

• What have you tried already to solve this?
• What happened when you did?
• How are you solving this now, if at all?

When you hear real frustration, inefficiency, or a work-around, that’s a real problem. Everything else is noise.

3. Go where people actually are

There’s a big gap between what founders hope will work (Twitter threads, paid ads, Product Hunt launches) and what actually works at the early stage: being where people already gather.

• If you’re selling B2B → cold LinkedIn outreach still works.
• If you’re selling B2C → join niche Facebook groups, Reddit threads, Discords, WhatsApp groups.
• In local markets → go to real physical places, talk to people, knock on doors.

Some of my earliest B2C wins came from walking into businesses and showing a demo on my phone. It’s not scalable, but it’s not meant to be.

4. Don’t touch paid ads or automations yet

Most people try to scale too early. They start with ads, paid lead gen tools, automations, and cold email databases. The problem? They don’t actually know what to say yet. And when you don’t know what message works, you’re just paying to accelerate bad messaging to the wrong people.

You don’t need any of that to hit 1M ARR. I’ve seen dozens of teams do it without spending a cent on marketing. What they did instead:

• Cold outreach
• Manual follow-ups
• Direct feedback
• Iterated messaging weekly

Use tools later. Do things manually until your message clicks.

5. Send 10 messages, adjust, repeat

This is where most people fall short. They build something, send 100 cold emails, get no traction, and assume the product is wrong. Usually, it’s the positioning, not the product.

Treat every outreach round like an experiment:

• Build a short message based on one value prop
• Send it to 10 people
• Track replies, reactions, conversions
• Adjust tone, angle, or audience
• Repeat

If you’re not learning from your outbound, you’re not iterating. You're guessing at scale.

Your first customers aren't about just money

Your first customer isn’t about revenue, but a signal. It tells you something real is happening. Someone trusted you with money to solve a real pain. It’s the moment your idea becomes a business.

So don’t wait for a growth strategy. Don’t wait for your brand to be perfect. Don’t spend weeks tuning your website.

Start small, be direct, and do it manually. That’s how people actually get going.