Practical ways to find early users. What works on launch day and what builds momentum over time.

The First Users Are the Hardest

Going from 0 to 1,000 users is harder than 1,000 to 10,000. You're building credibility from scratch.

Before Launch

Build a waitlist - Collect emails while you're building. Give people a reason to sign up (early access, discounts).

Create content - Blog posts, tweets, videos related to your space. Be helpful before you ask for anything.

Join communities - Where do your potential users hang out? Be active there. Help people.

Have something to launch - A product hunt page, an announcement post, a demo video.

Reach out personally - Email 20 people who might care. Ask for feedback, not signups.

Leverage your network - Friends, family, former colleagues. Ask for shares, not necessarily signups.

Post in relevant communities - Hacker News, relevant subreddits, Discord servers. Follow community rules.

Double down on what works - Track where users come from. Do more of that.

Talk to users - Why did they sign up? What do they like? What's missing?

Fix friction - Watch users try your product. Smooth the rough edges.

Ship improvements - Show momentum. People join growing projects.

SEO - Content that ranks for problems you solve. Slow but sustainable.

Social - Building in public, helpful threads, engaging content.

Referrals - Make it easy for happy users to invite others.

Communities - Genuine participation, not just self-promotion.

Partnerships - Complementary products, influencers, communities.

Paid ads (usually) - Too expensive when you're figuring out product-market fit.

Spamming - Gets you banned and ruins reputation.

Buying users - Vanity metrics, no real engagement.

Waiting for viral - It rarely happens without effort.

Track weekly:

The ratio of active to signed up matters more than total signups.