Early-stage software companies find their first users mostly by hand: choosing a narrow group of people with a real problem, reaching them directly, and learning from every conversation. Scalable channels such as search, paid ads and partnerships matter later. In the first months, the job is to prove that a specific person wants the product enough to use it, and to learn why.
Why the first users are not a channel problem
New teams often start by picking channels: search, social, paid ads, a launch day. That is usually premature. With no users and no proof of demand, a channel only amplifies uncertainty.
Paul Graham’s essay Do Things That Don’t Scale argues that startups rarely take off by themselves and that founders have to push them, usually by doing things that do not scale at the start. His main tactics are worth reading in full. In summary: recruit users manually rather than waiting to be found, give early users an exceptional experience even with a rough product, start with a narrow market, and do work by hand before automating it. He also warns against relying on big launches or partnerships to generate growth.
The essay reflects one experienced investor’s view of startups, and it is not a rulebook, but it matches what the first months of a software company need: direct contact and fast learning.
Step 1: Define a narrow first audience
Pick one group you can name and find. “Small businesses” is too wide. A hypothetical example: “owner-managed physiotherapy clinics in Brisbane” or “freelance bookkeepers who manage ten or more clients”. The test is simple: can you list fifty of them by name, and know where they gather?
Graham makes the point that a focused early market can build the critical mass a product needs to grow. Narrowness also sharpens your message and your product. Our article on customer research interviews explains how to find out what these people actually need before you build further.
Step 2: Recruit users one at a time
Practical ways to reach your first users:
- Personal and professional networks. Ask for introductions to people who match your audience, and be specific about what you want.
- Communities where the audience already talks. Join conversations, answer questions and be useful before mentioning the product. Respect each community’s rules on self-promotion.
- Direct outreach. A short, honest message to a person who plausibly has the problem, asking for a conversation, not a sale.
- Existing customers of adjacent services. If you have consulted or worked in the field, your contacts are the shortest path.
- Demonstrations. Offer to walk someone through their own data or workflow in your product.
Track each contact: who they are, what they said, what they tried and what stopped them. This log is more valuable than any dashboard at this stage.
Step 3: Make the first experience excellent
Early users forgive rough edges but not neglect. Respond quickly, fix issues the same day where you can, and do tedious parts manually behind the scenes if that makes the product work for them. Graham notes that founders can do manual tasks before automating them. The point is to learn what actually creates value before you invest in building it.
Ask each early user what they would use instead of your product, how they found the problem and what would make them leave. Those answers become your positioning.
Step 4: Make the product findable
Once a handful of people use the product, give strangers a way to find it. Start with the basics, which Google’s SEO Starter Guide covers:
- Check that your site is indexed. Google primarily finds pages through links from other pages it has already crawled, so earning links from other sites helps.
- Give each page a unique, clear title that describes it, with useful details such as your business name.
- Create original, well-organised, people-first content with clear headings, and anticipate the different terms people might use for the same thing.
- Use descriptive URLs with words users understand.
- Promote the site through communities, social media, advertising and word of mouth. The guide calls word of mouth one of the most effective and lasting methods.
Search takes time to compound. Write down the problems your early users describe in their own words, and build pages that answer them. Our article on topic clusters and pillar pages shows how to organise this content, and a good landing page turns visits into trial sign-ups.
What a launch can and cannot do
A launch announcement on a product directory or social platform can bring a burst of attention, but a burst is not a habit. Graham cautions against relying on big launches to generate growth. If you launch, prepare to follow up personally with every sign-up, since those first visitors are your best source of feedback.
Signals that it is working
- Users come back without being prompted.
- People describe the problem in the words your marketing uses.
- Users refer others without being asked.
- You can describe your best-fit customer in one sentence.
If none of these appear after real conversations with a well-chosen group, the problem may be the product or the audience rather than the marketing.
When to add scalable channels
Add paid advertising, partnerships and content programmes when you know who the best-fit customer is, what they respond to and what a new user is worth to you. Until then, spending money on reach tends to buy noise. When you do scale, keep the direct conversations going, since they keep you honest about what customers need.
Limits
These tactics are slow, and they depend on your time. They suit products where a small number of users can be reached directly. Products sold to very large or consumer audiences may need different early tactics. Nothing here guarantees traction, and none of it replaces a product that solves a real problem.
Where Radiance Impact fits
Radiance Impact’s Growth and Marketing division works on search visibility, campaigns and strategy, and its Technology division builds business websites and landing pages. If you need a clear site and message for an early product, contact us or see the Growth page.
Sources
- Do Things That Don’t Scale, Paul Graham
- SEO Starter Guide, Google Search Central
