The Founder's First Ten Customers
A practical guide to finding, talking to and winning your first ten customers, including telling politeness from real demand and what to do if ten conversations lead nowhere.
PDF field guidePDF25 minute readFounder-led sales
What is inside
- How to define customer ten, narrowly enough to find them.
- How to build a list of fifty without any tools.
- Customer interview versus sales conversation: when to use which.
- How to tell politeness from real demand, with a ladder of commitment.
- What to do if ten conversations produce nothing, and how to avoid building around one customer.
- A 30-day plan and checklist.
Who it is for
Founders who are still looking for their first ten customers, or who have a few and are unsure what repeats.
How to use it
- Read the first two pages, then browse the groups that match your market.
- Pick the three signals most relevant to the problem you solve.
- Test each one against the four Rs before you act on it.
Why we made it
Because the first ten customers are about learning what repeats, not about scaling.
What it will not do
It gives you a process and honest tests. It cannot find your customers, or guarantee they exist.
Keep going
Use it with.
- Self-diagnosticFree
Founder Sales Scorecard
Twenty honest questions across the five areas of founder-led sales. See your overall score, your area-by-area breakdown and your biggest constraint.
Founder-led sales · 8 minutesTry it → - Excel templateFree
ICP One-Page Canvas
A one-page canvas to define who you sell to, why they buy now and who to avoid, plus a weighted grid to compare segments.
Founder-led sales · 45 minutesSee what is inside →