Founders must actively engage in customer recruitment to drive startup success, as a good product alone cannot ensure growth. Contrary to the belief that products will automatically attract users, successful startups develop their offerings in collaboration with customers. This highlights that initial products often require iteration based on user feedback, rather than being perfect from the start. Consequently, founders face the uncomfortable reality that they need to put in the effort to manually attract and recruit customers, rather than relying solely on automated advertising or additional coding. Many founders tend to evade this crucial responsibility, mistakenly thinking that increased development work will suffice in gaining traction.
How do you get your first customers? YC Group Partner & former Head of Growth at Airbnb, Gustaf Alströmer, gives tactical advice to answer this question for all kinds of companies — whether you're B2B or B2C — and discusses why it's important for founders to do sales early on.
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