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A 30-Day Playbook for Finding Your First Ten Customers

Sample article. A week-by-week plan for validating demand before you write a line of code or sign a lease.

By Pharoh Martin·

1 min read

Three founders plan at a whiteboard in a co-working space
Three founders plan at a whiteboard in a co-working space

This is sample content written to demonstrate the layout.

Your first ten customers will teach you more than your first ten investors. Here is a four-week plan to find them.

Week one: write down who you are serving

Describe one specific customer in a paragraph: their job, their budget, the problem that costs them time or money. If you cannot, you are not ready to sell.

Week two: twenty conversations

Book twenty short calls. Do not pitch. Ask how they solve the problem today and what that costs.

"If nobody is paying to solve the problem today, they probably will not pay you either."

Week three: a paid pilot offer

Offer a small, paid version of the solution — a service, a spreadsheet, a manual process. Charging something, even a little, separates interest from intent.

Week four: count and decide

  • Ten paying customers: build.
  • Three to nine: refine the offer and repeat week three.
  • Fewer than three: revisit week one.

Filed under: customersvalidationsales

Sources

  • Rob Fitzpatrick, "The Mom Test" (2013)
  • Blk Founders editorial analysis

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