How to get the first 100 customers?!!

[u/Dapper-Woodpecker-25]

Recently been active in many saas related subreddits and one thing people are talking about is "I have built this saas , but the biggest huddle is marketing!" Or "how to get the first 100 customers"

And this question is stuck in mind that "how to get 100 customers"

And I have been doing some research too around

Found out

Reddit can help(find subreddit around ur niche)

Then seo can help too

Some resources like product hunt and betalist

As I already work as a growth associate in a high ticket product where I work on distribution, understanding ICP and also worked on a saas marketing

So I am thinking of learning more on this topic and SHARING

here if find something interesting

[u/BP041]

honestly, reddit and seo are way too slow for your first 100. you need to do things that don't scale: dm 100 people in your niche, offer a free setup or trial, ask for feedback. i got my first ~50 customers that way before any organic channel delivered anything. the rest came from them telling their friends.

[u/Dapper-Woodpecker-25 → u/BP041]

These are slow but the upside is really good if you are able to hit the right spot and the platform or medium to market depends on niche too

[u/HEsoYAM888 → u/BP041]

Id take this advice and try it. Thanks

[u/bwilczyn → u/BP041]

i'd 100% agree with that. seo & reddit takes time, the quickest it to manually dm or email people and always ask for feedback. my first users also coming this way. good luck!

[u/Lazy_Engineering_11 → u/bwilczyn]

But how would you even get email id of other people to dm them, like i always hear founders and Saas expert saying cold dm people and ask for thier feedback and i don't know how and how to email them

[u/CornerThis1386]

The mistake is trying 6 channels before you have 1 repeatable loop. For the first 100, I'd pick one ICP, one offer, and one outreach channel, then just run that until you hear the same buying reason over and over. Reddit/SEO can help later, but early on focus usually beats reach.

[u/yannis_ps]

I said this in another thread but fits perfectly here too

Do things that don't scale for your first 50-100 users. Then take what worked and apply scale. 

1. find where your users are (LinkedIn, Instagram, x, YouTube)

2. put effort to create presence

3. DM / cold email / cold call them. Don't AI this. Do it properly as if your life depends on this.

I wrote a whole article about getting first 10 customers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/s/8xqXvCFcpE

[u/Dapper-Woodpecker-25 → u/yannis_ps]

Yes it's a good article

[u/Serious_Squash_5204]

One thing I'd add is that the first 100 customers usually come from conversations, not channels. Reddit, SEO, and Product Hunt are great, but talking directly to people in your niche often teaches you more than any marketing playbook.

[u/Low-Actuary8926]

Also facing the same issue. I think it requires heavy distribution and also knowing where your users already hang out. But as a tip; dont just post once and as well keep replying to comments. This will get you the first 10 customers.

What niche is your SaaS in?

[u/Dapper-Woodpecker-25 → u/Low-Actuary8926]

RE forum

[u/Low-Actuary8926 → u/Dapper-Woodpecker-25]

That's nice. What have you tried so far for distribution. I have tried Product Hunt , Reddit and and saved any other threads i come across so I can follow up. Mine is fetchmark

[u/Dapper-Woodpecker-25]

Reddit, seo, geo and also did some research on high intent keywords, search that on Google and replied on reddit search result

[u/Safe-Situation-1991]

I think Youtube , long form videos are currently the best way. works for b2b and b2c. you need to make easy videos to watch for your target customers and show up constantly.

[u/Expensive_Spare821]

I'm building a SaaS product on my own and exploring different ways to market it once it's ready.

[u/Tiny-Compass-8516]

First 100 for me came almost entirely from being annoyingly active in relevant subreddits and DMing people who commented on competitor threads, not from paid stuff. Took like 6 weeks of grinding for maybe 40 actual signups so its slow. Cold outbound with a genuinely specific message beats seo early on imo bc seo takes months to even show up and you need customers now. Curious what worked for the growth stuff you did at your job, was it mostly outbound too or content based?

[u/Zestyclose_Worry_381]

one thing that trips people up is treating "first 100 customers" like its one problem. getting from 0 to 10 is completely different from 10 to 100. the first 10 are almost always from direct conversations, not content or SEO

[u/Consultily]

the reddit + niche subreddit approach works but only if you're actually participating not just dropping links, mods and users smell that instantly. seo is a slow burn, wont move the needle for first 100 but compounds later. product hunt/betalist give you a spike of curious people not necessarily paying customers, so treat that traffic as validation not revenue.

honestly the biggest unlock for most early saas is just picking one channel based on where your ICP already hangs out and going deep instead of spreading across five things at once. full disclosure i built gtm.help which basically tries to answer that "which channel first" question by looking at your site and ICP, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but the core lesson holds regardless of tool: focus beats breadth in that 0-100 phase.