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CEO of Y Combinator on how a startup can find its first 10 customers:

Priority on feedback with proven value in money

«№1. You need to know personally at least your first customer or a couple of first customers to be sure that they are now trying to solve the problem that your product solves.

At the same time, we recommend looking for the first 10 customers in a way that will NOT scale in the future. You don't need elaborate advertising schemes (funnels) or any viral growth mechanisms - you have to attract them manually.

No. 2. There is no benefit in trying to sell to "difficult" customers from the very beginning. Instead, find those who are willing to pay, who are willing to work with a startup and who have a problem so strong that they will use the product even at the raw MVP level.

#3. Sell a product for money: Use this as a signal of how strong their problem is. If they are willing to use your product only for free, this is a bad sign.

No. 4. And finally, make sure that you have four or five clarifying questions so that you can really weed out your customers from those who are just interested but won't want to buy anything. These questions should determine how acute their problem is and how ready they are to act quickly.

Focus only on those who answered "correctly", that is, the way you need to. And leave the rest for later." — Michael Seibel

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