How to get your first paying customers for a SaaS
Not launch day, not ads, not a better landing page. Ten named people, one direct question, and a reason to say yes this week.
By Panche Isajeski · Tallinn
- Your first customers come from people, not channels. Ten names beat a segment.
- Ask for money, not feedback: "Would you pay $X for this from Monday?"
- Then give the people who know you a reason to tell others: post the build, with real numbers.
For four months I tried to get customers the way the guides say. I paid for ads and influencers. I hired a sales person. I sat in workshops and went to events to listen. All of it together brought zero customers.
What worked was smaller and much less comfortable: asking specific people, by name, whether they would pay, and posting every step of the launch to the people who already knew me. Two months after I started, it was at $9.5k MRR.
Here is the method in five steps, with what each step looked like for me, and the same step for your product.
Step 1: write ten names, not a segment
"Small agencies" is not a customer. "Marko, who runs a four-person agency and complained about invoicing on LinkedIn last week" is.
Your first customers are individual people you can reach today: by message, email or a reply to something they posted. Write ten of them down. Rules that matter:
- They have the problem now, not "might be interested one day".
- At least half already pay for something that solves it badly: a tool, a freelancer, a spreadsheet they hate.
- No friends and no family. They will say it's great, and they will not pay.
Where to find the names, in the order that worked best for me: people who complained about the problem in public in the last 30 days; people who signed up for your product and went quiet; the two or three places where your buyers spend time, not where founders do; customers of the tool you replace, found by searching its name with "alternative" or "too expensive".
Your turn: write ten names. If you can't fill ten, that is the finding. You don't have a marketing problem yet; you have a "who exactly is this for" problem. Answer that first.
Step 2: ask for money, not feedback
"Would you use this?" gets a yes from everyone and tells you nothing. "Would you pay $X for this, starting Monday?" gets real answers, and a "no" to a price is the most useful sentence you will hear this month, because it usually comes with the reason.
Keep the message short and about them:
Hi [name], you mentioned [their problem, in their words]. I built [product] to fix exactly that: [the result, one line]. It’s [price] a month. Would you pay that to have it from Monday? If not, what would stop you?
Send it today. Not after the redesign. I rebuilt my pricing page more times than I will admit, and no version of it got anyone to pay. The messages did. If the price itself is the question, start with What to charge before anyone has paid.
Your turn: fill the brackets for your first name on the list and send it before you read the next step.
Step 3: give the first group a real reason to start now
People who like your product still put it off. A small first group, with something they get only by joining now, turns "later" into "yes".
Mine was the Founding 30: the first 30 founders got lower fees for life and a 15-minute setup call with me. It was real, it was limited by my own time, and more than 20 people asked to be in before launch day.
Make yours honest: a lower price that stays theirs, a setup you do for them, a direct line to you. Never a countdown timer that resets.
Your turn: write what your first ten customers get that customer number 100 won't, and why it is limited.
Step 4: post the build to people who already know you
Strangers don't click on a product from someone they've never heard of. People who know your name do.
I gave away free playbooks about my buyers' problem: how to get paid from abroad without opening a company, what the bank asks for, what you owe in tax. My product was one of the tools inside, never the subject. Then I posted every step of the launch as it happened, in the language my network reads, with a real number in every post.
The result on relaunch day: 119 visitors, 22 sign-ups (18.5%, against 2 to 5% for a typical landing page), and the first 2 payments within 15 hours. By day 40: 400+ sign-ups and 1,400+ payments through the product. The full launch, post by post: the channels that got me customers.
A launch, a number, a first. Never a pitch.
Visitors, sign-ups, the first payment. People trust numbers they could check.
Where they already know you, in the words they use.
Your turn: write one post about something that happened this week with your product, with one real number in it. Post it where people know your name.
Step 5: make the first payment easy, then ask for the next names
When someone says yes, send a link that goes straight to paying. No account to create first, no plan to choose, no "book a call". Test it yourself from a phone before you send it.
Then ask every new customer one question: who else do you know with this problem? Your second ten names come from your first customers.
Your turn: pay for your own product from your phone right now and count the clicks. Remove one.
If people sign up and still don’t pay, find the step where they stop: why nobody is buying your SaaS. The whole path, from idea to revenue: how to bootstrap a SaaS.
What doesn't work at $0
Not forever, but before your first customers:
- Paid ads. They amplify a message, and you don't know yet which message makes people pay.
- Launch platforms on their own. One day of founders looking at your product, rarely buyers.
- A sales hire. Nobody can sell what the founder hasn't sold yet.
- More features. If nobody has paid for what exists, more of it won't change that.
Questions
How many people do I need to ask to get my first customer?
Start with ten named people who have the problem now. If none of them would pay, the answers tell you why: the product, the price, or the person. Fix that and write the next ten.
Should I offer my SaaS for free to get first users?
Free users tell you whether people will use it, not whether they will pay. Ask for money from the start, even a small amount. A discount for a first group is fine; free forever is a different business.
Do I need an audience to get first customers?
No, you need ten names. An audience helps later. The people who know you already, colleagues, past clients, your city, your community, are enough to start.
Figures here are my own: AgentaOS, four months at $0, relaunched 10 August 2026; relaunch-day funnel measured 15 hours after launch, bots filtered out; 400+ sign-ups and 1,400+ payments by day 40; $9.5k MRR two months after the relaunch.