
Stripe Atlas: Getting your first 10 customers - nozzlegear
https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/starting-sales
======
stevoski
How I got my first 10 customers for my SaaS in 2017:

1\. I answered Quora questions for which my product was a potential answer.

2\. To each person who followed links from the Quora answers to my site and
signed up, I wrote a short email asking if I could personally help. I tried to
make it obvious these were not auto-generated emails.

3\. I did all I could to help the people who responded.

What I didn’t do:

Email cold prospects.

I know Patrick (author of the article), and I hold his advice in high regard.
I just want to show that there is another way to get the first 10 customers.

~~~
ben_jones
I've noticed a lot of questions on Quora are saturated by those kind of
answers. It seems to be an accepted tradeoff, shameless and often bias self-
promotion in exchange for a medium-effort answer. Furthermore it seems to me
that a lot of these self-promotional posts are done by paid shills of the
company which in my view further discredits them...

As a dev I'm constantly evaluating trade-offs between products and its gotten
to the point that for many subjects I won't even check quora links.

~~~
donmatito
I had the opportunity to attend a fireside chat with d'Agostino at The Family
in Paris. Someone asked that very question. The answer was they view pitching
one's product as a perfectly valid answer to questions such as "what's the
best product to achieve X".

As a dev I don't mind these pitches when looking for tools. The comments/votes
often provide a rather complete picture, at least for the most active
questions

~~~
weavie
I wonder how many of these questions have the question and answer both created
by the same person under two separate accounts..

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PatientTrades
Quora needs to crack down on self-promoters. Every other answer includes a
link to site for a product or a service. Its taking away from the genuine
nature of real questions and answers. Now its just a place business people go
to get the word out about their service, product, research, etc.

~~~
minikomi
If you're seeing a lot of these kind of answers, you can sign up for my
service [http://quorareporter.ai](http://quorareporter.ai) . Makes reporting
these kind of things a breeze, and learns automatically from your input! Shoot
me a DM on twitter @quorareporter for some discount codes for your first 10
reports.

~~~
pc86
You should find some Quora questions asking about self-promotion in Quora
questions and let folks know this service exists.

------
mrskitch
I'd like to add that if you're product is fairly technical, or solves a pain
that's engineer-focused, you're likely better off finding folks on place like
GitHub or StackOverflow. Quora and the like is great, but they tend to be
high-level or broader questions.

As an aside: if you're trying to find something to build, just look through
GitHub issues and look at the products waiting to be built ;)

~~~
egfx
"just look through GitHub issues and look at the products waiting to be built"

Interesting idea. Thanks for that. On the topic of quora, I converted alot of
followers by putting the product and describing it in depth on my profile. It
happens to be a promotional tool. So Quora is so far the most effective
strategy for me because a good number of people view my posts and most power
users have something to promote.

------
ElbertF
This is off-topic but is anyone else dealing with an insurmountable number of
charge-backs selling digital goods using Stripe? I'm using Radar, Sift
Science, email verification, CAPTCHA, post code checks, country and domain
restrictions, rate limiting and every other trick in the book and yet
reportedly a third of my payments is fraudulent.

The way credit card payments work seems backwards and hopelessly broken. I
reached out to Stripe several times but keep getting the same templated
response. What gives?

~~~
SandersAK
We might be able to help at Chargehound. We're the only automated system that
fights chargebacks for you. We're also the only one on Stripe's platform
that's endorsed by them: [https://stripe.com/works-
with/chargehound](https://stripe.com/works-with/chargehound)

~~~
ElbertF
Thanks for the suggestion. I do this manually and never won a dispute. I
suspect the fraud is being committed by a single person or group of people for
the purpose of testing stolen credit cards. In some cases victims contact me
after seeing my business name on their statement. I also report suspicious
transactions myself.

~~~
codazoda
Can you verify, even after the purchase, and automatically refund them?

As an example, will the spammers click a validation link?

~~~
ElbertF
I send a verification link to new email addresses before accepting payments.
They do click them.

~~~
fencepost
Do those verification clicks come from the same ip address as the initial
order?

~~~
ElbertF
Good question, I don't know. I could fail the verification if it doesn't
match.

~~~
fencepost
It's not 100% because you may get some folks who sign up on a PC but deal with
email on a phone, but if they're on home wifi then it'll be the same address.
If your emails are sent immediately then differing IPs seem like they'd be
rare.

------
nhorob67
I have a side project that's turning into a full-time gig. Farm financial
analysis software.

I did a year of blog posts and email marketing before launching last December.
Launch generated 30 customers and $45,000 in ARR.

Edit: I don't have the numbers in front of me but I spent $5-10k on FB ads
prelaunch

~~~
matrix
That blog is the perfect example of how to create content that provides
compelling value for your target market, and establishes credibility for your
product. Great stuff!

Have you tried publishing a column in newspapers and the like that farmers
typically read? I bet it would be popular and a powerful source of leads.

~~~
nhorob67
I haven't published anything or sought to. I should look into that. I've been
laser focused on the blog and email list. I need to broaden my reach though.

------
KeepTalking
For any founder getting started, I highly recommend the book traction: How any
startup can achieve explosive growth.

While most of the advice is better suited to well-funded startups a lot of the
tactics can be improvised for smaller startups as well.

Another tactic I highly recommend in your emails to prospects is to use
personalization. Make sure that your opening has a direct and personal appeal
to the customer. In order to look for avenues for personalization look at news
about the target company, events and product launches or news aligned in the
business segment. I have even seen one industrious sales rep use college
football news as part of their personalization tactic.

~~~
tixocloud
I second the recommendation on the book Traction.

After reading that book, it really opened my eyes to all the possible
distribution channels and every single one, when executed well, can be success
including ones thought to be so low-tech. Which really leads to the mantra of
go where your customers are regardless of whether they are online or not.
Offline channels can be very effective.

------
shubhamjain
I thought Patrick was a strong advocate of inbound marketing (writing articles
and other forms of content). I am sure he still is but I can recall in one
comment he had mentioned something that went like: "it's better to put effort
in writing one piece of content rather than 10 cold emails."

I am sure both cold emailing and inbound marketing have their own place, but
this guide seems slightly uncharacteristic of what Patrick has recommended—and
found success with—over the years.

~~~
patio11
I think I'm still an advocate of inbound marketing, but feel like I've also
been learning a bit over the last 10 years. One thing I've learned is that the
lead time on it, particularly if you're starting from the position of no
platform and (potentially) no experience producing public artifacts, is quite
long.

The lead time on writing emails is pretty short; you can execute on it today,
have a call lined up for Thursday, and get agreement in principle by Friday
(depending on the complexity of the sale, but assume something which could be
adopted in a low-touch fashion). Having a customer on Friday is a lot more
effective in terms of learning what still sucks about your product than
getting your first customer in February 2018.

Your mileage may vary; there are lots of ways to play mix-and-match among
approaches here. (I'd note that most of my previous success with high-value
deals was indeed mix-and-match; something inbound like "Hey I liked this blog
post" from a software company occasioned "Really glad to hear that. I have
some thoughts about how it is relevant to your situation, too: $THOUGHT,
THOUGHT, THOUGHT. Would you like to discuss in more depth?" occasioned Actual
Sales Work (TM) quite a bit of the time.)

------
chiefalchemist
It seems to me that building the product is relatively easy when compared to
acquiring (and retaining) customers, growth, etc. Often it seems the focus is
on technology and product with marketing being a no-brainer, given. Typically,
reality is the other way around.

------
orliesaurus
Using stackoverflow/quora to answer questions and then link people to my blog
for long reads as a fallback seems to work really well for me.

So basically the answer is given but I also add my relevant link for rewarding
myself, having answered that question for free and hoping it helped the person
asking in exchange for a click to my brand seems fair.

------
adamqureshi
I run a niche marketplace site. I use ambush sales tactics to find customer on
forums. Once i convinced them to email me THEN 2nd task is to convert them
with a free listing THEN ask them to pay, if i sell their listing / ev car. I
started testing $100 got paid, raised it to $150 got paid now im at $250 and
getting paid. I am considering to push it to $500 ( maybe not). I think $250
is fine for me im good with selling 4 listings / month and making 1k/month. I
use FB messenger to chat with customers and Email or SMS works just fine! i'll
keep at it. I have a small email list now of buyers 100-200. I know its not
much but an extra $1k-$2k/month for me is fine at the moment. I don't have
dreams to be a millionaire or scale or [add your fancy start up lingo here]
just keepin it real. Wealth is discretionary time.

~~~
mikeleeorg
I remember seeing a post from you about your marketplace, along with a
thoughtful explanation behind your tactics. It sounds like you have a great
approach that's working really well, and I really appreciate you sharing all
of that info.

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't you push it to $500? Your market, in my naive
outsider view, seems to have the discretionary income to handle that.

I ask because I'm wondering at what point do you determine you've set too high
of a price? Was there considerable drop-off in conversions near that number?
Or a gut feel?

~~~
adamqureshi
I am at $250/now. I am now seeing some interesting data patterns on selling
price and am considering maybe asking for $500. Right now i am gonna stay with
$250 and slowly begin testing $500. But i just started testing a tesla on
demand model im not sure how that is gonna work:
[https://onlyusedtesla.com/ondemand/](https://onlyusedtesla.com/ondemand/)

Problem: a tesla owner takes his tesla in for servicing. Servicing center has
no loaner for him. Service center rents a tesla from my platform for the
customer. Problem is inventory. Also tesla can use my platform to get
customers in for a short term rental then try to convert them into a sale (
sell them a tesla)

So new business models are unfolding. there are other ways to make sales. I
will of course test my threshold. ;-)

~~~
KGIII
Instead of jumping to $500, is raising it by $50 an option?

If you jump to $500 and some pay, but not enough, then you revert to a lower
number, people who paid $500 may feel slighted. Moving up at $50 reduces the
impact and those who paid lower will feel like they got a bargain. Maybe...

~~~
adamqureshi
So i just sold a model x 90D on the site and this guy who is a dealer paid me
$500. Now i just listed another model x 90d for him. So i am thinking for a
dealer i'll ask them to pay $500 it could be just this guy or i just got lucky
( one off) But the idea of raising it in $50 increments is interesting and I
will start testing ASAP! Another online dealer wants to list their used tesla
inventory now, they are a well funded start up based in NYC no lots. I gotta
work out a monthly deal with them i don't even know how much they are paying
to cars / autotrader but looking into it. ;-)

------
KeepTalking
For your first 10 customers, I recommend that the early startup team not wait
till the product is ready. Ideally, someone at the startup (Founder ideally)
takes the lead and spends 20% of their weekly time talking with prospective
customers.

In fact, attempt to start engaging with prospects through the product
development process. This tactic is very useful both for product validation
and messaging validation.

------
huhtenberg
> _Patrick has built four software companies that did business
> internationally._

Is this in reference to Bingo Card Creator and Appointment Reminder? Or was
there something equally notable in Patrick's international business track
record?

~~~
SyneRyder
I think Starfighters was another, a recruiting firm that found talent via
coding challenges, for which Patrick built a mock stock exchange with an API
for people to write trading bot clients to defeat specific 'levels' of the
game. It was a lot of fun.

[https://www.starfighters.io/](https://www.starfighters.io/)

[Note, as the site is defunct, it appears the TLS certificate hasn't been
renewed and so you'll probably get a security warning from Chrome.]

------
taytus
We are pre-launch startup. We got our ten first customers presenting at 1
million cups events and some pitch events here in Dallas. We haven't go live
yet, but we already do have paying customers :)

------
pkrumins
I got my first 10 customers by going to all the Hackers/Founders and 106 Miles
meetups and just demoing Browserling to every single person that I met on my
tiny 11" macbook air.

------
edoceo
1\. Use Stripe

2\. Get booted at 11th customer cause their underwriting doesn't like your
name.

3\. Use different provider.

~~~
newlyretired
According to your own site[0], it sounds like Stripe declined to continue to
serve you because of an association with a cannabis business. (That's a sub-
optimal reality, but I think it's disingenuous to state that it was because
they didn't like the name.)

[0] [http://edoceo.com/blog/2017/04/stripe-rubbing-salt-in-the-
wo...](http://edoceo.com/blog/2017/04/stripe-rubbing-salt-in-the-wound)

~~~
edoceo
They did, then after I raised that issue, they invited me back, thanked me for
being a poineer and said I should proceed and likely wouldn't get caught this
time.

I told them to check first, cause I don't want to move platforms then have an
issue.

So, weeks later they told me that underwriting doesn't like my new name and I
won't get to use their platform.

Bad names include the terms "weed" or "the". Acceptable words are "GrowFlow"
or "Mister Kraken" \- direct competitors who basically sneak through.

Even when everyone knows what's going on everywhere.

~~~
newlyretired
Bureaucracies are inherently risk averse; that is what it sounds to me like
you ran into. You have my sympathy for it. I think it's wrong and a net loss
to society, but I also have no impetus to criticize a banking/finance company
from staying away from anything that even smells possibly grey.

~~~
edoceo
You didn't understand. They have accepted 2/3rds of they grey, and booted me -
twice - based on name alone, even after lengthy phone calls and email threads
spanning weeks.

------
goatherders
Research > personalized email > set the call for discussion or demo > close
the deal is a GREAT active way to get customers. That said, I find many people
in Tech opt for passive, less intrusive sales methods. Both can be successful,
especially over time. But if you can get good (and even comfortable) with the
Active way to sell, he potential for you to build scalable businesses in most
any arena is near limitless.

------
mottomotto
> $500 a month supports low-touch sales and software which costs more than
> $5,000 or so annually requires high-touch sales

Am I parsing this wrong? $500/month x 12 = $6,000. $6,000 > $5,000. So
wouldn't both of these examples require high-touch? Maybe that was a typo and
it's supposed to be $50 not $500?

Or is the focus supposed to be on monthly vs annual billing?

------
wj
I've been working on a series of content with this exact same title but it
looks like it will have a different slant. I always get something of value out
of all of Patrick's content over the years and this is no exception. Getting
the first customers is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, thing for many
entrepreneurs.

------
artur_makly
Warm personalised emails via ReplyApp. huge conversions. requires crafting the
perfect email and testing delivery. Email list must be culled prior for
product market fit.

------
yeeeeeeeeee
I am a single founder Atlas company with an app that I've been working on for
a while now. I'm sitting in Starbucks waiting for Apple to open so I can
charge my phone and go to a nearby college campus to get my first users. I
don't know anyone here so this is a tall task. I'm going to collect AT LEAST
100 "no's" today. Wish me luck

~~~
ramses0
Where are you located? What's your app? It's not shameless self promotion
unless you're shameless about it! :-D

------
eugenekolo2
Disregarding the actual contents of the article:

How is this article #1 on HN being up for 30min w/o any comments?

~~~
madamelic
Internal promotion likely.

"Hey all, just posted the article. Please go upvote and don't follow links to
vote"

~~~
pc
HN is good at detecting and penalizing this.

~~~
mbesto
Generally speaking yes. However it _can_ be gamed for sure, just not
consistently in the long run. Not saying Stripe did this in this particular
case (in fact I'd think quite the opposite), but just like Reddit, Facebook,
and Twitter's situation, it can be done with the right motivation.

------
amelius
Confusing name; I thought this was about Atlassian.

