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Companies looking for their first customers

bemyfirstcustomer.com

93 pointsabrimo27 comments

I've just started a company with one of my friends and now we are working on getting our first customers. I read a lot of articles about the topic and it seems everyone faces the same challenges. So I was thinking of creating a place where startups could post their upcoming or newly released products and early adopters could happily be their first customers.

I had some time yesterday so I created a site for it: http://bemyfirstcustomer.com/

You essentially just add your product and some sort of discount or offer and people will register their interest. Then you can just contact those people. It's pretty informal, not like those coupon sites that cost money but hopefully it will help people generate leads (if enough people use it).

What does everyone think? Does this already exist somewhere else?

This could be pretty cool if you keep the noise down by pre-approving products in some way. I'm not sure if people would just go to the site to try to bargain hunt, hard to say really. Seems that a mix of offering quality products that are paid for by the site and offered intermittently, getting a few sponsored accounts or just having really decent products could promote return visitors. Some sort of newsletter could go a long way as well.

Yea it's hard to know how it will end up. I kind of want to keep it open so any startup can advertise their product/service. Instead of a groupon clone where you have to have some awesome pre-approved deal to get listed.

Thanks for the suggestion, I've just added a field for you to put your email address to hear about new offers.

Tagging, tagging, tagging.

I'd use this if I could somehow subscribe to an RSS feed of just categories of things I'm interested in.

Interesting idea. I agree with the other comments that some UI love would be nice.

At first glance, this reminded me of early adopter feedback sites like AlphaList.co, BetaCandy.com & LeanThingy.com, though they are geared more for feedback and you are more for actual users.

The name threw me off a bit. I like it, but I'm guessing it's not meant to be literal, yea? As in, all of the services listed have 0 customers and after I sign up and become one, they will not be listed anymore. In that line of thought, is there any criteria to how & when a company will be removed from the list?

In the "I'll take it" dialogue box, the Offer could perhaps be better off as plain text instead of as a disabled field. I thought I could click on that and edit the offer when I first saw it.

Very neat idea. I signed up for BugCam, so it's already working! :)

Thanks for the feedback. Yea the UI could use some work and a nice logo would be good too, I'll see if I can get that done soon.

Yea it's not meant to be literal, the companies that post offers are able to disable them whenever they want. So it's really about getting your first few customers I guess. This being a spur of the moment sort of thing, the name was a tad humorous as well.

Good points, and glad BugCam got an early signup - I really hope it helps people discover cool new products.

This is like Groupon for startups... a really natural fit.

Company: "I need customers, I'm willing to give away product/services cheaply to entice early signups."

Client: "I'm willing to try some unfamiliar product/service if I can get it for a smokin' deal".

And then you step in and introduce them to each other. Nice.

Seems like a nice idea to me, but it might work better if it was targeted more for a certain niche of products. Otherwise customers get a ton of offers for products they're not interested in at all.

For instance, the moment I saw those two offers at the bottom, I instantly got turned off from the site. Not only do they look a bit like regular marketing promotions, the services themselves don't interest me at all. On the other hand, if there was a site like this for a niche I'm interested in, I would definitely be more engaged.

Judging from the few products that are now listed, it does seem like there needs to be some categorizing and/or curating. The offers need to be really great, the products need to be really cool. I recognize that this isn't the most insightful comment ever - the point is, it can't just be a free-for-all, I think.

Interesting idea. It took me a moment to realize the incentive here (note: I didn't care enough up front to read the text as there's "a lot" of it) -- perhaps the idea of offering something special should be made more visible. Maybe you could break it down as simply as possible. Something like:

Provide a special incentive/offer and receive your first customer!

Why should YOU be my first customer? Because of this special offer...!

Thanks - those are some good points. I've just added some more text in bullet form that hopefully explains it a bit better.

Partially agree, less text is [almost] always better. Pay more attention to customer side. Use sharp expressions avoiding classic ones.

By classic, i imply expressions like "Special offer". They seem unappealing and remind of spam. Never tell people to do something (like "you should"). It is irritating for customers (Personally, I hate it).

[Update] Forgot to write, i think you really should work on the design.

I signed up on a lark. We'll see if it drives anything. They may need help getting their first customer.

Neat idea. Just posted my project (BugCam). Let's see how it goes. Note that I am already using LaunchRock (see getbugcam.com) - if you service works than you might want to integrate LaunchRock-style referral tools.

BugCam sounds neat. I've seen people use Jing & Camtasia for this, and I've always been surprised that no one created something similar and included integration with bug trackers.

Glad to hear it. Yes, we're aiming to reduce the number of clicks from, like, 15 (not an exaggeration) to just a couple. Also, we're imposing a limit on the length of the bug video, and forcing other constraints, which we hope will turn into a certain type of video (think of twitter vs. WordPress). More at blog.getbugcam.com, if you're interested.

this seems quite interesting, i'll keep an eye on this.

Basically the only thing you ask for is an email where i can be contacted to submit some feedback correct?

Does the company get my email or use an form that you provide?

I'm asking this because i always try to know where my email is going.

Yea just your email address if you are interested in being one of the firs customers. Your email address is then given to the person who posted the service and they can follow up. You can also visit the company's website directly and signup for their service.

Sadly, I didn't find it usable for getting customers with problems to ask me how I could help.

If I am understanding you correctly, you're not looking for "customers" in that case-- you're looking for prospects.

This site is aimed at people who have developed a solution, and want to get early adopters.

If you're still looking for a problem to solve, your needs (and process) will be different. (Hint: find a domain where you a) already have lots of contacts, and b) already have some understanding of the sales process. If you don't know enough folks in a domain well enough to find out about their unsolved problems, you probably will have significant difficult selling to them.)

Well, yes, the new entry title wouldn't mislead me.

Unfortunately, being a student doesn't allow me to know enough folks in a domain other than 'software'.

Oh, you'd be surprised. For example: what do your parents do for a living? Did you ever have a summer job, or an after-school job? Do you have any (slightly older) friends who have already graduated and taken jobs? Siblings? Aunts or Uncles? Friendly neighbors?

I'm guessing that you know lots of people-- the trick is to a) talk to them about what they do for a living, and b) listen. (That last step is critical.)

My parents basically live on a farm in an isolated village in an economically undeveloped county.

Forgive me if I sound harsh, but the tech world wouldn't believe how needless software still is in the vast majority of Europe.

Not to mention cultural differences -- I admitted I was a web developer in a real estate agent's office, and they wanted me to fix their internet connection.

I honestly appreciate your input and will keep trying. :)

My first startup, which I successfully cashed out of a few years back, developed software for farmers in Europe and South America.

Seriously. There are still many millions to be made there.

I really like the idea, but the front page does a very bad job at teasing me. The concept is simple, so I think they could explain it in a simpler way. Anyways, good luck to them !

Just added WorldsPlay.com. It helps to plan events with others with similar hobbies. Currently we are working on the beta release.

I signed up, I love being an early adopter, because I'm on the lookout for things that well give our company an edge. No emails as of yet, though. Keep in mind I am looking to quickly dart through companies, not tirelessly research a database for something that might be useful.

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