The short answer
Your first 10 customers almost never come from ads, Instagram or cold messages. They come from people who already trust you, or who are introduced to you by someone they trust. So the job in the beginning is simple: meet as many people as you can, talk about what you're building, and ask everyone you meet who else should hear about it. It works the same for a product brand, a service and a SaaS tool.
Why founders look in the wrong place
Most founders I advise start by looking outward: Instagram, ads, cold emails, LinkedIn messages to strangers. It feels like the grown-up way to do marketing. For your first 10 customers, it mostly doesn't work.
The announcement post. Brand founders put up their launch post and it gets a lot of eyeballs. Likes, comments, "so proud of you". Then it dies within a day or two, and the orders don't follow. That post was your friends being kind, not strangers deciding to buy.
Instagram as a sales channel. Many brand founders believe that posting will bring views, and views will bring sales. Early on, it brings neither. You have no audience yet, and a stranger scrolling past has no reason to trust you.
Cold outreach. For SaaS and B2B founders, cold messages hardly work at the start. A stranger's inbox is full of people asking for 15 minutes. Without someone introducing you, you're one more message to ignore.
The common thread: at the start, people don't buy the product. They buy the founder. And they only trust a founder they know, or one someone they know vouches for.
Three businesses, three routes to the first 10
| Business | What they sell | Where the first 10 came from |
|---|---|---|
| SellerMate | Software for Amazon sellers (SaaS) | WhatsApp groups full of Amazon sellers, its ideal customers, where the team posted about SellerMate |
| A marketing agency I worked with | A service | Referrals: her first client introduced her to more people, in WhatsApp groups and on LinkedIn where her ideal clients were |
| Rimore, my linen brand | A product | Friends, family and their friends, then flea markets and pop-ups where strangers could meet us |
Three different businesses. None of the first 10 came from an ad or a cold message. Each came from a place where the founder was already trusted, or got introduced by someone who was.
SaaS: go where your users already talk. SellerMate's first customers were Amazon sellers. The team found the WhatsApp groups where those sellers already gathered and posted about SellerMate there. No ads, no cold emails: just the product shown to exactly the people it was built for.
Services: one client is your best salesperson. The agency founder started with one client. That client introduced her to more people, in WhatsApp groups and on LinkedIn, the places her ideal clients already were. A service is a promise about the future, and a referral is someone saying "she kept her promise to me". Nothing on a website is as strong as that.
Products: let people meet you. Rimore's first buyers knew me. The next ones met us at markets, touched the fabric and talked to me. A stranger who has met the founder trusts the product faster than any ad can make them.
Your plan for week one
If I could give every new founder one instruction, it would be this: meet as many people as you can, and talk about your product.
- List 50 people you already know. Friends, ex-colleagues, family, people from college, people you've done business with. Not to sell to all of them: to tell them what you're building.
- Message them one by one, not as a broadcast. A short personal note: what you're building, who it's for, and one question, like "Do you know anyone who struggles with this?"
- Ask every person for one introduction. The introduction is the real prize. A warm intro beats a hundred cold messages.
- Be where your ideal customer is. This matters more than how many people you message. Work out who will actually use what you sell, then go where those people already gather: a WhatsApp group, a LinkedIn circle, a community, a place.
- Talk to every early customer properly. Why did they buy? What almost stopped them? Who else do they know who has the same problem? Customer 11 gets easier because of what customers 1 to 10 told you.
Of all five, being where your ideal customer is matters most. For a SaaS tool or an agency it's easier: you can name the job or the type of business. For a product, the line is blurrier, but there are always patterns. A healthy snack brand's buyers are in gyms. A linen brand's buyers are in hot places, where people actually want to wear it. Find the pattern, then go there.
This is founder sales: you, personally, selling. It doesn't scale, and it isn't meant to. It's how you learn who your customer is and what makes them say yes. Ads and content work much better once you know that.
FAQ
How do I get my first customers with no money for ads?
Start with people who already know you, ask each of them for one introduction, and show up in the one or two places your customers already gather. Your first 10 customers cost time, not money.
Does cold outreach work for a new SaaS?
Rarely, at the start. Strangers ignore cold messages. Warm introductions from someone they trust convert far better, which is why founder sales matter so much early on.
Will Instagram get me my first sales?
Usually not. A launch post gets attention from friends for a day or two, then fades. Instagram works better later, once you have customers and stories to show.
Where do service businesses get their first clients?
Mostly referrals. One happy client introducing the next is the strongest marketing a new service has.
What is founder sales?
The founder personally selling: meeting people, talking about the product and asking for introductions. Early buyers trust the founder before they trust the brand.
Bhavana Gupta is the founder of Rimore and co-founder of Brand School, which walks first-time founders from an idea to their first 100 customers, one step at a time.
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