Today Rivin.ai Works With Billion Dollar Companies. This Is How We Got Our First 10 Customers.
I constantly see founders whine “how do I get my first customers?”.
I too used to think that getting first customers was hard.
But truthfully, getting your first customers for your startup is really simple— you just post on the internet.
As long as your product is actually as good as you think it is…
If you dedicate yourself 12+ hours per day— you will get customers.
This is the story of how I got my first customers for my startup Rivin.ai— and how I used that traction to close an investment from the legendary angel investor Jason Calacanis.
There are two main ways you can get your first customers:
1. Posting On Social Media
The primary way you will get customers, especially for lower priced products, is through posting on the internet. Grinding out on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, Facebook Groups, TikTok, etc.
These platforms were the main drivers I used to get my first 10 customers, but all platforms are not created equally.
There is a difference between follower-based platforms and post-based platforms:
a. Follower-based platforms are social platforms where the numbers of followers you have strongly effects your post views, such as LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
If you post on LinkedIn and X with no followers you will get zero reach.
b. Post-based platforms, on the other hands, social platforms are where the primary determinant of your post virality is the post content itself. The main post-based platforms are Facebook Groups, Reddit, and TikTok.
As a founder, if you have no followers you need to start by focusing on post-based platforms and slowly build up your presence on follower-based platforms.
So how do you get views?
Simply talk about something you are knowledgable on in the same niche as your startup.
For example, if you are building an influencer-to-brand partnership startup. Just start writing posts on Reddit about how hashtags work, how influencers can draft collab emails to brands, etc.
You can really write about anything as long as it’s somewhat relevant to your startup and is:
Interesting
Relatable
Controversial
… and Valuable
Besides that there’s no advice to follow— I personally have a method I use, but you should write what you enjoy talking about and over time you will get good at it.
2. Messaging People
The second way you will get customers is by directly messaging people.
There are two primary ways to do cold outreach:
a. You reach out to people who have posted about having the problem your startup solves
Search for keywords and keyword phrases on Reddit and X. If you run an influencer-to-brand partnership startup, search up keywords like “influencer collab”, “influencer brand partnerships”, etc.
Then pop into conversations, read them, and message that person on every platform you can find them on.
Message them some version of:
“Hey (name)!
Noticed you posted back in 2024 about (topic). I’m actually building (one liner about your company).
Would love to get your feedback on what I’m working on :)
P.S. Love (personal note about them)”
b. You outreach to people who are your target ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
The second outreach strategy is more work, but is better for expensive products.
You need to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find people with your target customer profile.
Continuing the influencer-to-brand partnership startup example, you would search for anyone on LinkedIn who mentioned YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram on their LinkedIn profiles with the words “influencer” or “creator”.
From there you would find their emails and phone numbers. (Google it, there are plenty of providers)…
Then message them a short 4-5 sentence email that’s similar to the above message.
If people don’t respond, send them 1-2 more follow ups and then move on.
Above all, be thoughtful and genuine with your messages.
That’s it. That’s all you have to do to get your first 10 customers.
Post on social media and message people— it’s not complicated.
Yes, your posts will suck initially and 85%+ of people will not respond to your messages.
But, you have to power through and grind out 12+ hour per day.
Overall, is finding customers hard and a little scary?
Yes— absolutely. Cry me a river.
But at the end of the day, sales is a numbers game.
Post consistently and message enough people— and you will eventually get customers, if your product is as good as you claim it is.
Today, my startup Rivin.ai is trusted by Walmart sellers and multi-billion dollar brands to power their Walmart data, so they can make smarter inventory and purchasing decisions.
But we didn’t start out this way— just two years ago we had zero customers and no one knew who we were.
So do you know what we did?
We kept posting and messaging people until we got our first 10 customers and raised an investment from Jason Calacanis.
If you want something… then put in the work and go get it.