This is a summary of the key insights from the Y Combinator’s Startup School lecture, “How to Get Your First Customers,” presented by YC Group Partner Gustav Alströmer.
TL;DR:
- Core Mindset: “Do Things That Don’t Scale.” Startups don’t take off on their own. Founders must manually recruit every single customer. It’s uncomfortable but mandatory.
- Founders Must Be the First Salespeople. Never hire a sales team before you know how to sell yourself. Selling is the only way to deeply understand your customers, their problems, and your product.
- Sales is a Numbers Game. The biggest mistake founders make is sending too few outreach emails, getting no customers, and wrongly concluding “sales doesn’t work.” You have to work backward from your goals and embrace low conversion rates.
- You Must Charge From Day One. A non-paying user is not a customer. Getting paid is the strongest signal that you’re creating real value. For B2B, use a money-back guarantee instead of a free trial.
The YC Guide to Getting Your First Customers
1. The Foundational Mindset: “Do Things That Don’t Scale”
This is the most important essay every early-stage founder should read, written by YC co-founder Paul Graham.
Many founders mistakenly believe that if you have a great product, growth will happen automatically. This is completely false. Startups don’t take off by themselves; founders make them take off. You have to manually recruit your first customers one by one.
This is uncomfortable work, and founders often find excuses to avoid it, like “I need to write more code” or “the product isn’t ready.” In reality, a great product is built with your customers, not in isolation.
The startup journey often goes through the “Trough of Sorrow.” The difference between success and failure lies with the founder: are you persistent enough to listen to users, improve the product, and do the selling yourself?
2. Why Founders MUST Be the First Salespeople
You cannot outsource sales in the early stages for these reasons:
- To understand your customers: Talking to users and selling are two sides of the same coin. If you don’t sell, you will never truly understand the core problem you need to solve.
- To control your company’s destiny: Like engineering, sales must be part of the founder’s DNA.
- To know what “good” looks like: You can’t hire a great sales team if you don’t even know what an effective sales process looks like.
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to sell. It’s the most learnable skill in a startup. If you deeply understand the problem you’re solving and are passionate about it, customers will feel it and want to listen.
3. The Playbook: How to Approach Your First Customers
a. Start with the “Easiest” Customers
Your time is limited. Don’t try to win the hardest customers. Focus on the easiest ones first:
- Sell to people you know: Leverage your existing network.
- Sell to other startups: Startups have fast decision-making processes and no complex procurement departments. You can often reach the decision-maker directly.
- Find the “early adopters”: Most people are not early adopters. They will ignore your email. Therefore, you must send a high volume of outreach to find the small minority who love trying new things and are willing to take a risk.
b. Crafting an Effective Cold Email
The Brex case study shows how a good email can land your first customers. The rules are simple:
- Be brief: 6-8 sentences max. Nobody has time for long emails.
- Use clear language: No jargon or buzzwords. Say what you do directly.
- Use plain text: No HTML or fancy formatting. Write it like you’re emailing a friend.
- Add social proof: Mentioning you’re a YC company or worked at a reputable firm builds trust.
- Have a clear Call to Action (CTA): “Are you free for a 15-minute chat?” or a direct link to sign up.
c. You Must Charge!
Offering your product for free is tempting, but it’s a trap. If they don’t pay, they are not a customer, and you don’t have a company.
A customer’s willingness to pay is the clearest signal that you are providing real value. Don’t be afraid of getting a “no” because of price. If they don’t want to pay, it’s a sign you should move on to the next prospect.
- For B2B: Don’t use a “free trial.” Instead, use a 30 or 60-day money-back guarantee. Get their credit card information upfront.
- Pricing: Keep increasing your price until customers complain… but still pay. That’s the right price point.
4. The Biggest Mistake: Not Doing Enough Volume
This is the error most founders make. They don’t work backward from their goals.
Imagine your sales funnel:
- To get 2 paying customers…
- With a 20% close rate, you need 10 demos.
- With a 50% conversion from reply to demo, you need 20 prospects to reply.
- With a 5% email reply rate, you need 400 prospects to reach out to.
- With a 50% open rate, you need to send 800 emails.
Most founders send 100 emails, get 0 customers, and conclude: “Sales doesn’t work for me.”
The correct conclusion is: “You sent too few emails. You don’t have enough data to make a conclusion.”
Early-stage sales is a numbers game because you don’t know who the early adopters are. Accept this and focus on maximizing the volume at the top of your funnel.