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How to Get Your First Customers | Startup School
13 segments available
YC Partner & Former Head of Growth at Airbnb, Gustaf Alströmer, gives tactical advice to answer the question: how do I get my first customers? Gustaf will cover this topic for all kinds of companies - whether you're B2B or B2C. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:20 - Outline 00:44 - Do things that don't scale 03:40 - Founders should learn how to do sales 08:45 - The sales funnel 13:50 - Charging your first customer 15:24 - Working backwards from your goal 19:51 - Summary #startup #tech #entrepreneur
Segments Timeline
The Importance of Doing Things That Don't Scale
Gustaf Alströmer emphasizes the critical mindset of doing things that don't scale in the early stages of a startup. He references Paul Graham's essay on this topic and highlights how successful companies like Airbnb grew by manually recruiting customers and engaging directly with them, rather than relying solely on automated solutions.
"School my name is Gustav and I'm a group partner here at y combinator today I'm going to talk about how to go from talking to users getting your first customers here's what I plan to cover today one w..."
Founders Must Embrace Sales
Alströmer argues that founders should take on sales themselves in the beginning. He explains that understanding customer needs and building relationships is essential for product development and success. Founders must learn sales to gain control over their startup's destiny and ensure they know what good sales look like.
"startup or an early stage company incorrectly believe that all you need to succeed is a good product and growth will take care of itself this is not the case the truth is that good product is very rar..."
Navigating the Startup Curve
Gustaf discusses the startup curve, illustrating the typical journey of a startup from launch to achieving product-market fit. He explains the challenges faced during the 'trough of sorrow' and emphasizes the importance of persistence and adaptability in overcoming obstacles to reach success.
"that it comes down to you it's not just knowing exactly how to do sales in theory but actually doing it and actually wanting to succeed another great visualization is what's called a startup curve thi..."
Learning Sales: A Founder's Journey
In this segment, Alströmer stresses the necessity for founders to learn sales as part of their core competencies. He shares examples of successful founders who mastered sales, highlighting that understanding customer problems and being passionate about solutions can significantly enhance sales effectiveness.
"the learnings we draw from the start curve is that every moment in the early days of startups the founders are the ones that make the difference between success and failures if you are in the wrong Ma..."
Crafting Effective Sales Emails
Gustaf provides tactical advice on writing effective sales emails. He outlines key elements such as brevity, clarity, addressing customer problems, and including a call to action. He emphasizes the importance of personalizing emails and avoiding jargon to connect better with potential customers.
"infectious if you're really passionate about solving this problem they will be able to tell if you don't believe me here are some examples of Founders who took on the sales job and learned to get real..."
Understanding the Sales Funnel
Alströmer explains the concept of the sales funnel, breaking down the steps from prospecting to closing a sale. He highlights the importance of onboarding customers effectively to ensure retention and long-term revenue, stressing that founders must actively manage this process.
"portion of it hey guys we're opening up our beta for winter 17 batch friends with the 10 spots for beta users 10 spot this sounds like there's a limited spot so I should take actions brex is a corpora..."
Targeting the Right Customers
In this segment, Gustaf advises founders to focus on acquiring their easiest customers first. He explains the importance of prioritizing leads that are most likely to convert and leveraging personal networks to facilitate sales, especially in the startup ecosystem.
"impressive companies in the past those are other piece of social proof that you can include you won't include a couple of these ones so that the reader knows the source and even if they don't know you..."
The Challenge of Early Adopters
Gustaf discusses the difficulty of reaching early adopters and the necessity of sending numerous outreach messages. He emphasizes that most potential customers may not be early adopters, and founders must persistently seek out those who are willing to try new products.
"your product and this is common with early products because they are not easy to onboard in the beginning this is not something you spend a lot of time optimizing so make sure that you do the onboardi..."
The Value of Charging for Your Product
Alströmer highlights the importance of charging customers for products, arguing that free trials can undermine perceived value. He encourages founders to establish pricing strategies that reflect the value provided and to learn from customer feedback during the sales process.
"selling to people you know is going to be easy to selling to strangers so you should take advantage of your network three selling to startups is the easiest category and I've I've learned this On and ..."
Working Backwards from Your Goals
In this segment, Gustaf explains the necessity of working backwards from sales goals to understand conversion rates at each stage of the sales funnel. He stresses the importance of tracking data to refine sales strategies and improve overall effectiveness.
"founders emailed me with new new products and I would be the one signing up for them so when I worked Airbnb and you were a startup email me was great I am an early adopter I love trying new things I ..."
The Role of CRM in Sales
Gustaf discusses the importance of using CRM tools to track sales data and conversion rates. He explains how these tools can help founders understand their sales processes better and make informed decisions based on real data rather than assumptions.
"free trials are common for consumers but if you thought about it most consumer free trials ask for the credit card up front and then we forget and then we pay anyway that's because that actually works..."
Common Mistakes Founders Make
Alströmer outlines common pitfalls that founders encounter in sales, such as insufficient outreach and misjudging the effectiveness of their sales efforts. He emphasizes the need for persistence and data-driven decision-making to improve sales outcomes.
"launching a new product you want to have some metrics and some user data to be able to tell if it's working when you're doing sales you want to have this data if you have this data people will be able..."
Tools and Resources for Sales Success
In this final segment, Gustaf shares recommended tools and resources for founders to enhance their sales efforts. He highlights the importance of continuous learning and adapting sales strategies based on feedback and market conditions.
"know why so a friend of mine from Airbnb Atlanta rashitzki he writes an excellent blog and he wrote a great blog post about how YC and a bunch of non-yc B2B startups um got their sales go to market st..."