The YC playbook for getting your first 100 paying customers. "Do things that don't scale" — but do them with precision.
Gustaf Alströmer Growth Playbook · YC Office Hours
YC-Proven Tactics for 1-100 Users
01
Personal Network First
Your first customers should be people you know or people 1 degree away. Cold outreach has < 1% conversion. Warm intros convert at 30%+. YC founders get their first users from LinkedIn, Twitter DMs, and personal emails.
→ Michael Seibel, YC CEO, Office Hours advice
02
Reddit & Niche Communities
Find the subreddits, Slack groups, Discord servers, and forums where your exact customer hangs out. Don't spam — contribute, then share. Product Hunt, Hacker News (Show HN), and Indie Hackers are YC staples.
→ Gustaf Alströmer, YC Partner on Growth
03
Cold Email That Works
Short, specific, personal. Subject: one line. Body: 3 sentences max. "I noticed you [specific thing]. We solve [specific pain]. 15 min?" YC founders who get cold email right close 10-20% of replies.
→ YC Startup School: How to Talk to Users
04
The Concierge MVP
Do the service manually before automating. Stripe had humans approving transactions. Airbnb founders photographed apartments themselves. This gets you users AND deep product insight. Scale it later.
→ Paul Graham, "Do Things That Don't Scale" essay
05
Partner Distribution
Find one business that already has your customers and do a deal. If you sell to restaurants, partner with a POS company. If you sell to developers, get listed in a marketplace. One good partner = 100 users fast.
→ Kevin Hale, YC Partner on Product
06
Content that Attracts
Write one extremely useful post for your exact customer — not about your product, about their problem. SEO-optimized, posted on relevant channels. One great post can send 1000 signups. Compound over time.
→ YC Startup School: Growth Strategy
🎯 Get a Personalized Plan
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