FAQ: Founders Ask Questions

Key Points: In the beginning, your best customer is not your goal, you just need a customer— think of it like going on your first run, you’re not trying to finish a marathon, you’re just trying to get out there and go.  It can be helpful to create quarterly customer acquisition sprints to pace yourself, rather than saying that your customer is everyone — create arbitrary budgets to help you target. Once you’ve gotten this machine operating — look back and figure out the things that are common amongst the deals that were easiest to close and hardest to close and hardest to service through customer support. Let those insights guide your future plans. Find the most frictionless path to a decent number of customers — this will keep the lights on and show investors viability. Once you get investment you can start experimenting with different markets, but to stay alive you need to get creative to start.