How To Get Your First 10 SaaS Customers

Getting your first 10 SaaS customers is often the hardest milestone for new founders. You don’t have case studies, testimonials, or market validation yet – but you need customers to get those things. This creates a frustrating chicken-and-egg problem that stops many promising startups in their tracks.

The good news? With the right approach, you can break through this barrier faster than you think. This playbook will show you exactly how to find, attract, and retain your first 10 SaaS customers using proven strategies that work even when you’re starting from zero.

Step 1: Define Your Ideal Early Adopter

Before you start reaching out to anyone, you need laser focus on who will actually buy your product in its early stage. Your ideal early adopter isn’t the same as your long-term target customer – they’re willing to take risks on unproven solutions.

Characteristics of great early adopters:

They have the problem you’re solving right now
They’re actively looking for solutions (not satisfied with status quo)
They have budget and decision-making authority
They’re comfortable with early-stage products
They’re willing to provide feedback and testimonials

Create a detailed profile including:

Industry and company size
Job title and responsibilities
Specific pain points they experience
Tools they currently use
Where they spend time online
How they typically evaluate new solutions

Pro tip: Start with people who know you personally or professionally. They’re more likely to trust an unproven product from someone they know.

If you need help discovering an early adopter – we built a free tool!

Step 2: Build a Simple Landing Page

Your landing page doesn’t need to be perfect – it just needs to clearly communicate your value proposition and capture leads. Focus on the essentials that convert visitors into customers.

Elements of a good landing page:

Clear headline and subheading that immediately explains what you do and who it’s for. Avoid jargon – use language your customers actually use.
Problem-focused copy that resonates with your early adopter’s pain points. Lead with the problem, not your solution.
Simple feature list highlighting 3-5 core benefits that directly address the main problems you solve.
Social proof elements like founder credentials, advisory board members, or early customer logos (even if just a few).
Clear call-to-action for a demo, free trial, or early access signup. Make it obvious what visitors should do next.
Contact information including a founder email address. Early customers want to know there’s a real person behind the product.
Tools to get started quickly:
- Webflow or WordPress for more customization
- Carrd or Notion for ultra-simple pages
- Unbounce or Leadpages for conversion optimization

Remember: A simple page that converts is better than a complex page that looks perfect but doesn’t drive action.

Step 3: Reach out to Your Network and Niche Communities

Tell people that would care about what you’re building! Focus on identifying people that are already in your network.

Leverage your existing network:

Personal connections – former colleagues, classmates, friends who work in your target industry. Send personalized messages explaining what you’re building and asking if they know anyone who might benefit.
Professional network – LinkedIn connections, conference contacts, industry relationships. Share your progress and ask for introductions to potential customers.
Advisory relationships – if you have advisors or mentors, ask them to make strategic introductions to potential early customers.

Find your customers in niche communities:

Industry-specific forums like Reddit communities, Slack groups, Discord servers, and Facebook groups where your target customers discuss their challenges.
Professional platforms including LinkedIn groups, industry associations, and specialized forums for your vertical.
Social media engagement by commenting thoughtfully on posts from potential customers, sharing helpful content, and building relationships before pitching.
Content marketing through blog posts, Twitter threads, or YouTube videos that demonstrate your expertise and attract potential customers organically.

Outreach best practices:

Lead with value, not your pitch
Reference specific pain points from their industry
Keep initial messages short and conversational
Ask for advice or feedback, not an immediate sale
Follow up consistently but not aggressively

Step 4: Offer Beta Access or Founder Pricing

Early customers need extra incentive to try an unproven product. Special pricing and exclusive access can tip the scales in your favor.

Beta access strategy:

Position your product as exclusive early access rather than an incomplete solution. Frame it as “getting in on the ground floor” of something valuable.

Offer limited spots (even if artificial) to create urgency and exclusivity. “We’re only onboarding 25 beta customers this quarter.”
Provide direct founder access as part of the beta experience. Early customers love having direct input on product direction.
Founder pricing options:
Significant discount – 50-80% off your planned pricing for the first year, locked in for early adopters.
Lifetime deals for your first 10-20 customers, though be careful not to undervalue your product long-term.
Free trial extensions – instead of 14 days, offer 60-90 days to reduce risk for early adopters.
Grandfather pricing – guarantee that early pricing will never increase for founding customers.

Value-added bonuses:

Free setup and onboarding
Custom feature development
Direct access to founders for support
Speaking opportunities at future events
Case study participation with promotion benefits

The key is making early customers feel special while collecting valuable feedback that improves your product for future customers.

Step 5: Onboard Manually for Retention

Your first 10 customers are too valuable to lose to poor onboarding. Handle their success personally, even if it doesn’t scale.

Manual onboarding process:

Welcome call within 24 hours of signup to personally introduce yourself, understand their specific use case, and set expectations.
Custom setup assistance including importing their data, configuring settings, and walking through key features relevant to their needs.
Regular check-ins scheduled at 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, and monthly to ensure they’re getting value and address any issues.
Direct communication channel like Slack, WhatsApp, or email for immediate support. Early customers should never feel stuck.
Success milestones tracking to ensure customers achieve their desired outcomes quickly. Define what success looks like for each customer and help them get there.

Retention strategies:

Proactive support – reach out before customers have problems. Monitor usage and intervene when engagement drops.
Feature education through screen recordings, custom tutorials, or one-on-one training sessions.
Feedback collection and rapid implementation of suggested improvements. Show customers their input directly shapes the product.
Community building by connecting early customers with each other for networking and shared learning.
Personal relationships – remember details about their business, celebrate their wins, and genuinely care about their success.

The goal isn’t just retention – it’s turning these customers into advocates who refer others and provide testimonials.

Step 6: Track and Optimize

What gets measured gets improved. Track the right metrics from day one to optimize your customer acquisition process.

Key metrics to track:

Conversion rates at each stage:

Website visitors to email signups
Email signups to demo requests
Demos to trial starts
Trials to paid customers
Paid customers to successful onboarding

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) for each channel including time spent, tools used, and direct costs.

Time to value – how long it takes new customers to achieve their first success milestone.

Churn rate and reasons for cancellation from your early customers.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure customer satisfaction and likelihood to refer.

Tools for tracking:

Google Analytics for website behavior
CRM like HubSpot or Pipedrive for sales pipeline
Mixpanel or Amplitude for product usage
Intercom or Zendesk for support interactions
Simple spreadsheets for manual tracking initially

Optimization tactics:

A/B testing your landing page headlines, call-to-action buttons, and email subject lines.

Messaging refinement based on which pain points and benefits resonate most with prospects.

Channel optimization by doubling down on channels that produce the best customers and abandoning those that don’t.

Process improvement by identifying bottlenecks in your sales and onboarding process and systematically removing them.

Feedback implementation from customer interviews to improve product-market fit.

Weekly review process:

Analyze metrics from the previous week
Identify the biggest bottleneck or opportunity
Run one specific test or improvement
Document results and learnings

Your First 10 Customers Are Just the Beginning

Getting your first 10 SaaS customers requires a different approach than scaling to 100 or 1,000. You need to be scrappy, personal, and focused on relationships over systems. Every interaction matters, every customer is precious, and every piece of feedback is gold.

Remember that your first 10 customers are investing in you and your vision, not just your current product. They’re betting on your ability to solve their problem better than anyone else. Honor that trust by delivering exceptional value and building something they’re proud to use and recommend.

The strategies in this playbook work, but they require consistent execution and genuine care for your customers’ success. Start with step one today, and in a few months, you’ll have the foundation of a successful SaaS business built on real customer relationships and validated demand.

Your first 10 customers won’t just fund your early growth – they’ll become the foundation for everything that follows. Make them count.