How To Get Your First Customers

Full Title

How To Get Your First Customers

Summary

The episode explains that acquiring early customers is more about a search for people with specific needs or early adopter tendencies than persuasion.

It emphasizes the concept of a "minimum evolvable product" that can adapt based on early user feedback, using Tesla's evolution as a case study.

Key Points

• Most people are not early adopters, so finding the first users requires searching for individuals who are either eager to try new things or have a pressing problem a new product can solve.
• Charging early adopters real money provides valuable, sharp feedback that is more impactful than feedback from free users, helping to guide product development.
• Targeted personal outreach, such as cold emails or direct contact, is more effective for reaching early adopters than broad marketing methods like billboards.
• Launching early is crucial to understand who these early users are and to create opportunities for them to discover the product, even before its final form is clear.
• Studying early users closely, like an anthropologist, is essential to understand their decision-making processes and motivations for trusting a new product.
• Experimentation with pricing, landing pages, onboarding, and features should be continuous, and the churn of early users is acceptable as the focus is on learning and adapting.
• The evolution of a product is path-dependent on the desires of its early adopters, meaning their preferences shape the product's future direction, as seen in Tesla's development from the Roadster to mass-market vehicles.
• A product should be a "minimum evolvable product" rather than just a "minimum viable product," designed to survive initial user contact and adapt based on their influence.

Conclusion

Finding your first customers is a search problem, not a persuasion problem, focusing on identifying those with a need or an early adopter mindset.

Products should be designed as "minimum evolvable products" capable of adapting and changing based on the feedback and demands of early users.

The evolution and ultimate form of a product are heavily influenced by the initial group of users it attracts, making their role critical.

Discussion Topics

• What strategies have you found most effective for identifying and reaching your ideal early adopters?
• How can founders balance the need for rapid iteration with the desire to create a perfectly polished initial product?
• In what ways do you believe early user feedback should shape the long-term vision and evolution of a startup's product?

Key Terms

Early adopters

Individuals who are among the first to use or purchase a new product or technology.

Minimum viable product (MVP)

A version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

Minimum evolvable product (MEP)

A product designed to be adaptable and capable of evolving based on early user feedback and market pressures.

Churn

The rate at which customers stop doing business with a company.

Phylogenetic tree

A branching diagram showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities based upon similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics.

Capex investment

Capital expenditure, representing funds used by a company to acquire, upgrade, and maintain physical assets like property, buildings, technology, or equipment.

0-60

The time it takes for a vehicle to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour.

Timeline