This is the best way to get your first 1000 users
Doing unscalable things lead to scalable products
Here’s how usually product journey goes:
Someone has an idea -> Creates the app -> Starts running PPC/paid ads to get in users.
But think about it, when was the last time you saw a new app on your social media via sponsored ads and you decided to sign up for it?
Yes, you might have done it, I have - but its most probably an image editing app or maybe a dating app 😅
Here’s how I feel if you are lanching an app that is new in concept should approach it in order to gain an initial bunch of users.
I’ll club it with an experience I had this week:
This is a screenshot of a message I got on Twitter.
It really intrigued me, cause he was telling me that he has got a special invite for me to join his new app (Which was cofounded by Hootsuite founder!)
I signed up the next moment.
And it was not only the end of it. The app was about sharing your startup idea.
I also came up with an idea and wrote it down. The quick idea was “Linkedin but for side hustlers“ (I know it’s lame)
But right after I published the idea, something else came across. As you can see, if I want my idea to be shown on the front page of the site, I have to get 2 upvotes.
How will I get 2 upvotes on this new platform? I need to invite my friends and ask for their help. The “network effect“ is in place.
Whether I invited others or not is another story, but in effect, I signed up for the platform and they did not spend a dime for it. And in addition to that, I became an “active user“ too. (Marketers spent 50-100$ to gain active users in normal PPC campaigns)
How did they do it? A little bit of “unscalable“ work. They went out on Twitter and created personalised invites.
Do you have any unscalable strategy to gain your first users/customers?
PS: watch my latest YouTube video on Personal Branding