Publication number: ELQ-45060-1
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How to Earn Your First 100 Customers
Learns the 8 ways used by successful startups.
Introduction
When people ask DC-based serial entrepreneur Michael Lastoria for advice about entering the choppy waters of entrepreneurship, he says, “Don’t do it.”
It’s a tough road. The primal urge deep within the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs drives them to sacrifice savings, relationships, and sleep to create something bigger than themselves.
They’re the ones at 3:00am, with a Red Bull in one hand and a phone in the other, who work, staring at the glowing laptop screen because they must execute their unshakeable vision.
An entrepreneur consists of three parts: visionary, hustler, and connector. They have a creative vision to solve a problem, they take perspiratory action to achieve their goal, and they know they can’t do it alone: they attract and empower a team of skilled people.
One of the greatest challenges startups face is how to start selling. The business model is ironed out, the product is ready, the team is lean, and the support is in place. It’s time to start generating revenue. Where do you start?
- Step n°1 |
They hustle.
Alex Nicholson, founder of Mariner Exchange, a mobile iOS app that connects boaters with marine service providers, brought in his first users through pure, manual hustle. He quit a well paying job at Morgan Stanley to pursue his vision.
He said, “I remember putting microfiber towels into little plastic bags with my flyer, zipping it up, and getting on my paddle board to go boat-to-boat tossing the free towel bags onto boats and talking with owners.”
Getting started takes a strict diet of sacrifice. Nicholson recounts the early months of getting his startup going, “I remember getting the same thing at Sam’s Club every time: 12 lbs of pasta, 90 oz of Ragu, 24 Clif bars, 2 bulk boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats, and milk. I ate that 3 times a day for a year. I lost 20 lbs.”
While Nicholson’s example of hustle might seem extreme to you, don’t worry. Thankfully, reaching out cold to your target audience is not the only outbound sales strategy entrepreneurs use. Even the best companies start with friends and family.
- Step n°2 |
To go big, they start small.
Fundrise, the world’s first and largest real estate investment crowdfunding platform, is a fintech startup founded by two brothers in Washington, DC. Their product allows non-accredited investors (regular joes like me) to invest money into a digital Real Estate Investment Trust (eREIT) in return for a tiny slice of equity in say, a NYC skyscraper.
Sounds advanced. Yet even the most technical startups begin with their first sales from a close network. Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, said, “[We started just] like any great internet company …by hand. We got our first 100 investors by asking our friends, family, and community to invest with us.”
Knocking on doors, whether warm or cold, isn’t the only form of effective selling. Who said you always have to go to a customer’s door? What can you do to make your customers come to your door? IoT startup Aquicore generated its first sales by attracting customers through thought leadership.
