Why LinkedIn Isn’t Enough To Get Your First Customers.
Everyone thinks LinkedIn is the only place to launch a startup and find customers. That’s a trap.
When I first started building startups, I thought the same. I posted once on LinkedIn, sent a few DMs, and expected customers to roll in. The results? About 1,000 views and zero traction.
Most founders try one LinkedIn post, get a trickle of views, and complain, “getting customers is hard.” The truth? If you only launch on LinkedIn, you’re invisible.
Where you launch matters. Don’t market a $100k+/year product on TikTok. And don’t post about your $5/mo product on LinkedIn. Know your price point, and pick the platforms that actually work for it.
Here’s how I think about platforms by price point…
For B2C products, TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit all work(and X.com if your product is higher ticket):
• TikTok is great for low-ticket ($5–$50/mo), viral-friendly, easy reach, but almost no business buyers use TikTok.
• Instagram (Reels) works for mid-ticket ($5–$200/mo) aspirational or visual products
• Reddit works for B2C for mid-ticket products ($5–$500/mo) as well, because the post-based virality lets you reach buyers directly, and it ranks extremely well in ChatGPT, driving extra discovery.
For B2B products, your approach depends on your product pricing as well:
• Low-ticket ($5–$200/mo): Use Reddit + X.com, with a small LinkedIn presence for credibility.
• Mid-ticket ($200–$1k+/mo): Use LinkedIn + X.com, with Reddit on the side for ChatGPT ranking.
• High-ticket ($1k+/mo): You need to primarily use a combo of LinkedIn + YouTube for authority and credibility, and X.com as a top-of-funnel awareness channel. You can reach prospects, build visibility, and get people interested before hitting them on LinkedIn. (Honestly, Reddit doesn’t help out as much here besides ChatGPT ranking).
Here’s where I’m going to get some hate: Elon buying Twitter was great for startups.
He cleaned up the platform, improved discoverability with the “For You” feed, and turned X.com from a meme pit into a professional playground.
Personally? I’ve closed tens of thousands of dollars in deals from X for my startup Rivin.ai just by:
Tweeting + replying to peoples’ tweets
Getting engagement on those tweets
Finding those leads on LinkedIn and connecting with them.
Messaging them on X, LinkedIn, and warm email.
Closing them.
Attention is easy to grab than ever. Conversations happen fast. And leads convert quicker because they know who you are personally.
You can do this process manually, but because this strategy worked so well for my startup, I decided to make my internal tool that does this, called Lynx, public.
So you can automatically enrich people who have interacted with your tweets, find their LinkedIns, and add them to your CRM.
Because, honestly? I think Reddit and X.com are the most underrated platforms right now. Both let you get attention faster than LinkedIn, reach buyers directly, and compound over time via ChatGPT and post-based virality.
If you want customers fast, don’t just post once on LinkedIn. Launch everywhere that makes sense for your price point, whether that’s YouTube, Reddit, or X.