Isn't most freelance work a race to the bottom? This would be great, but most online job boards seem to go to the lowest bidder (who normally works for $10-12 an hour)
a) 0 -> 100 users is easy
b) 100 -> 1000 users is easy
c) 1000 -> 10000 users is easy
My gut feeling is that a) is actually the hardest step.
My whole point is to go for recurring revenues, and, aim for slow, sustainable growth. If you want to go for 10K users, you will need funding. And, that will be a much, much riskier path.
For example I know a guy who sells detailed study guides for software engineering subjects tailored to his university. Even if he captured 100% of the market he would have maybe 300 paying customers.
Last time I spoke with him he was earning around 20k from the guides and another 30k from tutoring the students. An extra $50k on the side as an individual is massive but it's not really worth it to a growth focused business.
e.g. customer development, sales, marketing.
Once you have 100 there will be new challenges like recruiting, managing people etc. But it won't be as hard as going from 0 - 100.