Finding Your First 100 Users (Without a Marketing Budget)

Marketing channels don't work below 100 users. Ads are too expensive. SEO is too slow. Content takes a year. The first 100 users come from one place: hand-to-hand combat. Here's how to do it without losing your mind or your dignity.

Step 1: define the impossibly narrow user

Not 'small business owners.' Not 'founders.' 'B2B SaaS founders between $1K and $10K MRR who handle support themselves.' Specific enough that you can list 50 of them by name.

Generic targeting requires advertising. Specific targeting only requires effort.

Step 2: find where they already gather

Three Slack groups, two subreddits, one newsletter, one trade publication. List the specific places, not channels in the abstract.

If you can't name five places where your customer already spends time, you don't know your customer well enough to start marketing.

Step 3: contribute before extracting

Spend two weeks in each community giving more than you ask. Answer questions. Share insights. Help with problems unrelated to your product.

By week three, you've earned the right to mention what you're building. Not in every comment. Not in every thread. Just enough that the people who care can find you.

Step 4: convert curiosity into conversation

When someone shows interest, don't pitch. Ask. 'What problem are you trying to solve?' 'How are you doing it today?' Half the time, your product isn't right for them — and that's fine. The other half are gold.

The goal of the first 100 conversations is not 100 customers. It's a clearer picture of who your real customer is.