first-customers

---
name: first-customers
description: >-
  Find and convert your first 10-100 customers using founder-led sales, community engagement,
  and early adopter strategies. Use when: launching a new product, acquiring first users,
  building initial traction before scaling.
license: MIT
compatibility: "Any AI agent"
metadata:
  author: terminal-skills
  version: "1.0.0"
  category: business
  tags: [startup, customers, sales, traction, founder-sales]
  use-cases:
    - "Create a plan to get first 10 paying customers for a new SaaS"
    - "Identify where your target customers hang out online"
    - "Design a founder-led sales process for early stage"
  agents: [claude-code, openai-codex, gemini-cli, cursor]
---

# First Customers

## Overview

Help founders sell to their first 100 customers through manual, founder-led sales. Based on the philosophy of The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia. The core insight: skip the launch and focus on selling. "Viral success" is a myth — every seemingly overnight success is built on months or years of hard work. Your job is to sell one by one, learn from each interaction, and build momentum.

## Instructions

### The Concentric Circles of Sales

Sell outward from the people who care most about you to the people who care least:

**Circle 1: Friends and Family**
- Start here. Yes, it's uncomfortable. Do it anyway.
- Pitch them on being your first customers, not investors.
- They trust you more than anyone else. If they won't buy, who will?
- Ask for their honest feedback, not social media posts.
- Kickstarter says: "Support always begins with people you know."

**Circle 2: Your Community**
- The community you identified and have been contributing to.
- Three steps:
  1. Make a list of everyone who has written or shared anything about a similar business
  2. Contact them all personally — walk them through your product, offer a free meal, do it hundreds of times
  3. Ask for candid feedback — not reviews or social posts, just honest feedback

**Circle 3: Strangers (Cold Outreach)**
- Cold emails, calls, messages — this works. It's how Gumroad grew.
- Each email refines your ability to write better ones.
- Use each rejection as a learning opportunity.
- Don't copy/paste — personalize every message.

### Sales Mindset

- You're not convincing anyone. You're helping people.
- You already have a relationship with your community.
- Turn every failed conversion into an insight — either wrong person, or product needs work.
- Sales is an education process: your customers get to know you, you get to know what's working.

### Pricing

- There is a massive difference between free and $1 (the "zero price effect").
- **Cost-based**: Your costs + a margin (e.g., 20-50%).
- **Value-based**: What it's worth to the customer, regardless of your costs.
- Start low and raise prices over time as your product improves.
- Goal: eventually move to tiered pricing as you build brand and value.

### Key Metrics

- Manual sales = 99% of early growth. Word of mouth = 99% of later growth.
- You need far fewer customers than you think. Slack's IPO: 575 customers = 40% of revenue.
- Product-market fit = repeat customers who sign up and use your product on their own.

### When to "Launch"

Don't launch until you have 100 paying customers. Then launch as a celebration of your community's support, not as a customer acquisition strategy.

### Output Format

Help the user create:
1. A list of 10 friends/family to pitch this week
2. A list of 10 community members to reach out to
3. A cold outreach template (personalized, not copy-paste)
4. Their initial pricing strategy
5. A weekly sales goal and tracking method

## Examples

### Example 1: SaaS Tool for Freelance Designers

**User prompt:** "I built a simple invoicing tool for freelance designers. It auto-generates invoices from Figma project files. I charge $12/month. I have 0 customers. Help me get my first 10."

**Expected output:**

**Circle 1: Friends & Family (This Week)**
Reach out to these people personally — text, call, or in-person:
1. Any designer friends you have — even if they use another tool, ask them to try yours for a month and give honest feedback
2. Non-designer friends who freelance (writers, developers) — they may not be your target but they'll stress-test the invoicing flow
3. Former colleagues from past design jobs

Target: 3 paying customers from this circle by Sunday.

**Circle 2: Community (Next 2 Weeks)**
You should already be active in design communities. If not, start now:
- Post in the Figma Community Forum showing how you solved your own invoicing pain
- Share in Designer Hangout Slack (12k members) — not as a pitch, but as "I built this for myself, anyone want to try it?"
- DM 10 freelance designers you follow on Twitter/X who have complained about invoicing. Example:

> "Hey Sarah, I saw your tweet last month about chasing down clients for payments. I built a small tool that auto-generates invoices from Figma projects — nothing fancy, just saves me about 2 hours a week. Would you want to try it free for 2 weeks and tell me if it actually helps? No pressure either way."

Target: 5 paying customers from this circle in 2 weeks.

**Circle 3: Cold Outreach (Ongoing)**
Search for freelance designers on Dribbble, Behance, and Twitter who mention invoicing pain. Send personalized emails:

> "Hi Marcus, I came across your portfolio on Dribbble — your brand identity work for Oakwood Coffee is fantastic. I noticed you're freelancing full-time, and I wanted to share something I built: a tool that auto-generates invoices directly from Figma project files. It saves me about 2 hours per week on billing. I'd love to give you a free 2-week trial if you're interested. Either way, keep making great work. — [Your name]"

Target: 2 customers from 50 cold emails (4% conversion is realistic for personalized outreach).

**Pricing:** $12/month is reasonable for now. Don't lower it. If anything, consider $15/month after your first 20 customers.

### Example 2: Local Service Business

**User prompt:** "I'm starting a meal prep delivery service for busy parents in Austin, TX. I cook 5 meals per week, delivered Sunday evening. $150/week per family. How do I get my first customers?"

**Expected output:**

**Circle 1: Friends & Family (This Week)**
- Text every parent you know in Austin: "I'm starting a meal prep service — 5 home-cooked family meals delivered Sunday evening for $150/week. Can I make your family the first batch this Sunday? I'll do the first week at $100 so I can get your honest feedback."
- Ask your parents, siblings, and close friends to spread the word to any Austin parents they know.
- Post on your personal Instagram/Facebook: "I'm cooking for Austin families. DM me if you want in."

Target: 2-3 families from your immediate network.

**Circle 2: Community (Next 2 Weeks)**
- Austin Moms Facebook Group (15k+ members) — don't hard-sell. Post: "Fellow Austin parents — what's your biggest struggle with weeknight dinners? I've been meal prepping for my own family and I'm thinking about offering it as a service."
- Nextdoor in your neighborhood — same approach, conversation first.
- Your kids' school parent WhatsApp groups — mention it casually.
- Local parenting meetup groups (Austin City Moms, Dad's Group ATX).

Target: 4-5 families from community engagement.

**Circle 3: Cold Outreach (Week 3+)**
- Partner with a local gym or yoga studio: offer their members a 10% discount in exchange for a flyer at the front desk.
- Drop off a free sample meal at 10 local businesses with a lot of working parents (pediatrician offices, daycares).

**Pricing:** $150/week is solid. Do not go below $120 — your costs (groceries, containers, gas, time) are real. Offer a "first week trial" at $100 to reduce friction, then full price.

**Weekly Goal:** Add 1 new family per week. At 10 families ($1,500/week), evaluate if you need to hire kitchen help before scaling further.

## Guidelines

- Always start with Circle 1 (friends/family) even though it's uncomfortable — skipping to cold outreach is a common mistake
- Encourage real personalization in every outreach message — templates are starting points, not scripts
- Pricing should never be free; the gap between $0 and $1 is bigger than $1 and $100
- Focus on learning over revenue in the first 10 customers — every conversation is data
- Manual, unscalable sales is the goal at this stage — automation comes later
- Don't suggest a "launch" until the user has paying customers who came organically
- Track rejections as carefully as conversions — they reveal product or positioning gaps