[HN Gopher] How To Get Your First 1,000 Users (2011)
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How To Get Your First 1,000 Users (2011)
Author : ColinWright
Score : 65 points
Date : 2021-01-24 10:13 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (viniciusvacanti.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (viniciusvacanti.com)
| dang wrote:
| Discussed at the time:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2193539
| snide wrote:
| I once started a social network around car culture. It did OK,
| and we got an exit offer, but decided to pivot to something else
| (which was the right move).
|
| Anyways, the way we got our early users was nontraditional. We
| went in person to car shows, took pictures of the cars, making
| sure one of them was with a polaroid camera. We then handed the
| Polaroid to the owner of the car and asked if we could feature
| their car on our website. If they said yes, we wrote out a
| email/pass on the back of the polaroid and then went home and set
| up their account. This seeded our original social graph.
|
| Harder to do these days, but don't forget about your legs. It's a
| lot easier to convince people in person than over a rote email.
|
| We got on Techcrunch as well, but it didn't help nearly as much.
| Techcrunch is mostly good for the inner industry[0]
|
| [0]: https://techcrunch.com/2006/06/11/cnet-veterans-launch-
| boomp...
| adamtester wrote:
| Interesting! I am trying to start a social network around car
| culture, I'd be interesting in knowing your thoughts!
| noomerikal wrote:
| Oh, I remember Boompa! I was at Edmunds when we rolled out
| CarSpace.
|
| https://www.edmunds.com/about/press/edmundscom-launches-cars...
| distribot wrote:
| Do you think harder to do these days because the existing
| social networks are so deeply entrenched?
| gricardo99 wrote:
| My guess "in person" is harder these days due to COVID-19.
|
| A lot of these industry gatherings have either been cancelled
| or gone virtual.
| kowlo wrote:
| First 1,000 users is great if you have something with a "free"
| version. Any advice on how to get your first 1,000 customers?
| newbie578 wrote:
| I do wonder what if you are mobile first? You are trying to get
| the first 1000 users for your mobile app, how would you then
| pitch on HN? Again the same landing page but with links to the
| app store?
| kristiandupont wrote:
| In some ways, it's quite astonishing to see how little has
| changed since 2011.
|
| "Get on Hacker News and Techcrunch, post ads on Facebook and
| Google Adwords". I think back in 2011 I would expect this list to
| be completely obsolete in 10 years. Back then, it felt like the
| whole ecosystem would shift every two years..
| fjabre wrote:
| The current players are comfortably entrenched. Thankfully
| China does not allow them to operate there. It gives us some
| hope that new players will form and become competitive like
| TikTok. Google and friends are only beholden to their stock
| holders.
|
| Google and Facebook destroy competitors. And make sure new
| entrants cannot gain traction. They are about as anti-
| competitive as they can be.
| baxtr wrote:
| _> Google and Facebook destroy competitors._
|
| I agree that they both hold onto their monopolies. But I
| don't think it's because they "destroy competition". Take
| Bing for example: it is quite alive. Google just delivers
| better search results. Yes the results have been
| deteriorating, but every time I get frustrated with them and
| try Bing as standard search engine, I switch back after a
| week. I don't like the google monopoly, but their core
| product is still not being challenging by anything I know of.
| mandeepj wrote:
| Have you tried DuckDuckGo? If yes, how's your experience?
| koo6 wrote:
| it's way way way behind
| baxtr wrote:
| Yes, I have... same experience. I switch back because I
| get frustrated.
| xavier_ wrote:
| I curated a list of 400+ places to post your startup [1]. Getting
| your first 1000 users aren't that difficult when you know where
| to find them.
|
| What i do is:
|
| - Post to startup directories (brings some traffic and some
| shout-out)
|
| - Post to communities, to better understand your customers and
| make friends
|
| - Create some content around your product and post it to Facebook
| groups, big Sub reddit and blog that allow guest post.
|
| That is pretty much how i get my early users to get the first
| feedback and iterate on my first version. Then I go with ads and
| newsletter sponsorship.
|
| [1] https://spreadtheworld.net
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