The First 100 Users: A Field Guide

Getting your first hundred users is harder than getting your first thousand. The first hundred requires you to do things that don't scale: post in the right groups, send direct messages, answer questions on forums nobody reads, and sit in front of strangers while they try your thing.

Scale comes later. Early on, your job is to talk to humans.

Where the first 100 live

They live in communities you are already part of. The forum for the problem you solve. The chat group of the tool you built on. The comment section under posts from people who complain about the exact thing you fixed.

Don't spam. Be genuinely useful for two weeks straight, and only mention what you built when it actually answers someone's question.

1. Find three places your future users already gather.
2. Give value before you ask for an email.
3. Reply to every single early comment within the hour.

The first 100 users will teach you more than any market research. They tell you what to build next, often in the exact words you should put on your landing page.