How to get your first 100 users

From 10 users to 100

Your first ten users usually come from manual effort: conversations, your network, a few community posts. That is the right start. See the guide on how to get your first 10 customers.

Getting to 100 is different. You can’t have 100 one-on-one conversations a week forever. You need channels that bring people in a repeatable way, and a way to see which ones bring the right people.

First, define what a “user” means

A signup is not a user. Before you count to 100, write down what a real user does. For example: “created a project and came back within seven days” or “sent their first invoice through the app”.

This matters because channels behave differently. One channel may bring many signups who never return. But another may bring fewer signups who stay and pay. So the goal is 100 activated users, and every number in this guide uses that definition.

Pick two channels

Pick one fast channel (communities or cold email) and one compounding channel (content or LinkedIn). Ignore the rest for 30 days.

How to choose: three questions

1. Where do my users already talk about the problem? If you can name the place, start there.
2. Can I list my users by name or company? If yes, direct outreach will be fast.
3. Do people search for the problem by name? If yes, content will compound, but slowly.

If two answers point to the same channel, that is your fast channel. Pick content or social as the second one, because it keeps working after you stop posting.

Work each channel for 30 days

Communities. Every day: answer two or three questions fully. Once a week: share something useful you learned. Mention your product only when it directly answers the question.

Cold email. Every week: 50 hand-picked people, short and specific messages, two follow-ups each. See the guide on cold email for founders.

LinkedIn or X. Three posts a week about the problem you solve and what you learn building. Reply to every comment.

Content. One useful article a week that answers a question your buyers search for. Link it in your community answers when it helps.

Templates for each channel

Community post that helps first

Title: How I [solved specific problem] without [common painful workaround]. “I kept running into [problem]. Here is the process that finally worked: [3–5 steps]. What I’d do differently: [lesson]. I ended up turning step [N] into a small tool; link in the comments if anyone wants it.”

LinkedIn or X post

“Most [type of person] lose [specific thing] to [problem]. But the fix is not [obvious answer]. It is [your insight]. Here’s how we do it: [3 short lines]. What’s your version?”

Cold email

Use the short, specific format in the cold email for founders guide: why them, one problem, one question.

A weekly rhythm that fits one person

About an hour a day is enough if you protect it.

Track the source on every signup

This is where most founders lose the plot. Without a source on each signup, you can’t tell which channel is working.

• Add UTM tags to every link you share (see UTM tracking for startups).
• Ask “How did you hear about us?” on signup, and keep that answer separate from tracking data.
• Store both in your CRM or user table.

Read the numbers

After 30 days, look at each channel:

Signups alone lie. A channel with 40 signups and zero paying users is worse than one with 8 signups and 3 paying. Keep the channel that brings paying users. Replace the other with the next option on the list.

A worked example

Imagine a founder who ran two channels for 30 days (illustrative numbers):

Reddit looks better on signups. But cold email produced more activated and paying users from fewer people. So the founder doubles cold email next month and keeps Reddit at a lighter pace for awareness.

The lesson is not that cold email beats Reddit. It is that you only see this when the source is recorded on every signup.

When to add paid ads

Paid ads amplify a message that already works. But they burn money on a message that doesn’t. So run ads only after organic channels show you which headline and offer make people sign up, and start with a small, tracked test. See the guide to your first $500 in ads.

Common mistakes on the way to 100

1. Spreading thin. Ten channels at once means none gets enough effort to work.
2. Counting signups. Signups flatter you. Activated and paying users tell the truth.
3. No source tracking. Without it, you will keep the wrong channel.
4. Stopping too early. Most channels need a few weeks before results show.
5. Ignoring onboarding. If new users don’t reach the first useful moment, more traffic won’t help.
6. Never asking for referrals. Your first happy users know people like them. Ask.

Your 30-day scorecard

Fill this in every Friday:

After four weeks, the “best source” column tells you where to spend the next month.

Turn signups into activated users

Getting a signup is half the job. But most new users leave before they reach the moment where the product helps them. So the cheapest growth at this stage is not more traffic. It is helping the people who already signed up reach that first result.

Four things do most of the work:

1. Shorten the path to the first result. Count the steps from signup to the moment the product does something useful. Remove every step you can. Pre-fill examples so nobody starts from a blank screen.
2. Send a personal note. For your first 100 users, write to each new signup yourself. One line: “Thanks for trying it, what made you sign up?” The replies are the best research you will get.
3. Follow up on users who stall. If someone signs up and does nothing for two days, send a short message with one tip or offer a five-minute call.
4. Watch three sessions a week. If you have session recordings, watch where people stop. If not, ask a user to share their screen while they try it.

A simple welcome sequence for this stage:

Get your users to bring the next ones

Early users who get a result are your best channel. But they rarely share on their own. So make it easy and ask at the right moment:

• Ask right after a success. When a user gets a result, ask if they know one person with the same problem.
• Ask for a short review. One or two sentences you can quote, with permission.
• List the product where your buyers browse. Relevant directories and tool lists bring a small, steady trickle of the right people.
• Show your users’ work. If the product creates something visible, ask to feature it.

None of this needs a referral program yet. A sincere ask works at this size.

Content that keeps working

Community posts fade in a day. A useful article can bring readers for months. If you chose content as your compounding channel, keep it simple:

1. Collect questions. Use the exact questions users ask you, and the ones you see in communities.
2. Answer one per week. Put the answer in the first paragraph. Add a real example. Link to your product only where it helps.
3. Share each article in the communities where the question came from, when it actually answers a thread.
4. Update what works. Every month, check which articles bring signups and improve those first.

Twelve honest, specific articles beat fifty generic ones.

A worked scenario: from 10 to 100 users

Illustrative example. A founder built a small app that helps freelance designers track proposals and follow-ups. She has 12 users from her network and one community.

Month 1. She picks two channels: a design community where freelancers ask about clients and pricing, and weekly LinkedIn posts. She answers questions daily and posts three times a week about what she learns from users. She tags every link and asks every signup how they found her. She reaches 31 users.

Month 2. Her numbers show the community brings more signups, but LinkedIn brings users who activate more often. She keeps both. She also notices that users who send their first proposal in the app on day one keep coming back, so she rebuilds onboarding around that single step. She reaches 58 users.

Month 3. She starts asking active users for one introduction each and writes four articles answering the most common questions. Introductions and articles together bring the last stretch. She reaches 104 users, and for the first time, more new users come from sources she didn’t touch that week.

The numbers are made up. The pattern is not: two channels, real tracking, a fix to onboarding, and a few small asks.

From 100 to 1,000: what changes

The first 100 users come from effort you can do by hand. The next 900 need channels that work without you in every conversation. Three shifts usually happen:

• From replies to systems. You move from answering every message to having onboarding, follow-up and support that run on their own.
• From one-off posts to compounding assets. Articles, templates, integrations and partnerships keep bringing users.
• From guesses to numbers. You know which channel brings activated, paying users, and you spend more there, including on small paid tests.

If you skip the first 100 and try to jump straight to these systems, you will automate a process you don’t understand yet.

Channel playbooks by product type

The best two channels depend on what you sell. Use this table as a first guess, then let your tracking decide.

Whatever you pick, give each channel 30 days of steady work before you judge it. Most channels look useless in week one.

A good signup vs a bad signup

Not all signups are equal. A hundred users who never come back are worth less than twenty who use the product every week. Learn to tell them apart early:

When a channel brings mostly bad signups, the fix is usually the message, not the channel. Make the page clearer about who it is for, and some people will leave before signing up. That is a good thing.

Glossary

• Signup: a person who created an account.
• Activated user: a person who reached the first real result in the product.
• Retention: the share of users who keep coming back after the first week or month.
• Channel: a repeatable way of reaching new users, such as a community, cold email or articles.
• UTM tags: labels added to links that record where a visitor came from.
• Self-reported source: what the user says when you ask how they heard about you.
• Compounding channel: a channel whose results build over time, like articles or referrals.

One rule for the whole journey

If you remember one thing from this guide: the first 100 users are not a marketing problem. They are a learning problem. But learning only happens when you track where people came from and talk to them. So every week, ask two questions: which channel brought the users who stayed, and what did they tell you? The answers decide the next week’s work.

What to do this week

1. Write down your definition of an activated user.
2. Pick your two channels and block time for them on your calendar.
3. Add UTM tags and a “How did you hear about us?” question.
4. Send a personal note to every user who signed up this month.
5. Count the steps from signup to first result, and remove one.

Questions and answers