Sam Altman – How to Get Your First 100 Users

Sam Altman outlines four common strategies to acquire your first 100 users, ranked from most effective to least:

1. Leverage Your Network: Reach out to everyone you know—email them, ask for favors, and make connections wherever possible. However, if you’re selling a paid product, make sure to charge them. As Sam explains: “People who are inclined to do you favors are going to be too nice in what they tell you. So if it’s a paid product, charge them.”
2. Research Potential Users: Identify individuals who might benefit from your product and email them asking for feedback. While the conversion rates are typically low—around 2-3%—you can still get useful responses by reaching out to more people. “You can send targeted emails saying ‘Hey, I just made this new product. I’d really appreciate if you would try it out.’ Most people want to be helpful.”
3. Social Media Outreach and PR: Use social media platforms, post on Hacker News, participate in forums, or generate press coverage. “The key here is to find a sustainable traffic source, rather than a one-time burst that fades away quickly.” Airbnb, for example, used continuous press stunts as an ongoing PR strategy. But, Sam notes, “it’s hard to pull off.”
4. Paid Ads: Buying ads and directing them to your website is the “laziest” approach, according to Sam. “This is not what I’d recommend. I don’t know of any startup that has gotten big starting this way. I include it because it’s the idea that most people try.”

While these steps might seem basic, Sam emphasizes that getting your first 100 users is primarily about hard work. As he puts it:

“Everyone thinks they’re going to put up this website, tell one person about it, and it’s going to take off like wildfire. But that’s not what usually happens.”

For more in-depth guidance on customer acquisition, Sam suggests reading Traction by Gabriel Weinberg, the founder & CEO of DuckDuckGo. The book covers nineteen different channels for building a customer base and offers a framework to help determine which ones will work best for your business.