How to Get Your First 100 Users for Your Startup in 2025: A Proven Step-by-Step Guide

You've built something. Now you need people to use it.

After analyzing 500+ launches, here's what actually works. Not theory-just tactics that get results.

Why These First 100 Matter

Think of your first users as your startup's founding team, except they're paying you. They'll tell you what's broken before it tanks your reputation. One happy user tells 3 friends; one unhappy user tells 10. They become the testimonials that convert your next 1,000 customers.

Before You Launch: Building Anticipation

Create a Landing Page That Actually Converts

Your landing page has one job: capture emails. Stop overthinking the design. You need four elements: a crystal-clear headline explaining what problem you solve, a visual (screenshot, demo GIF, or video), an obvious email capture form, and social proof-even three beta tester quotes work wonders.

Dropbox got 75,000 signups with a 3-minute video and an email form. No fancy design. No features list. Just pure value proposition. Build yours in 2 hours with Carrd ($19/year) or Webflow (free).

Build Real Anticipation

Launching in silence is startup suicide. Create FOMO by limiting access: "Only 100 founding member spots available." Offer exclusive benefits like lifetime 50% discount for early adopters. Add gamification-let people jump the waitlist by referring three friends.

The magic number? Get 200-300 waitlist signups to convert into 100 active users. Not everyone follows through, so oversubscribe 2-3x.

Launch Week: Maximum Impact

Product Hunt can send 500-2,000 visitors in 24 hours if you play it right. Most founders treat it like "post and pray"-that's why they fail. Launch Tuesday through Thursday (weekend launches get 70% less traction), submit at 12:01 AM PST to maximize your 24-hour window, and rally 5-10 friends to upvote and comment in the first two hours. This signals quality to the algorithm.

Respond to every comment within 30 minutes. Cross-promote across Twitter, LinkedIn, and your newsletter throughout the day. Top 5 products average 400-800 upvotes and 2,000-5,000 visitors. Even #10 can drive 500+ targeted visitors.

Directory Submissions That Matter

Don't spray-and-pray to 500 directories. Focus on quality platforms where your target users actually hang out. List on Startup Listing for $2 (instant approval), consider BetaList for $129 if you're pre-launch, engage on Indie Hackers (free, high engagement), follow rules carefully on relevant subreddits, and time your Hacker News Show HN post strategically.

Each quality directory can drive 50-200 visitors in the first month, with 3-8% converting to signups.

Your Personal Network Is Gold

Your first 10-20 users will likely come from people who know you. Send personal messages-not mass emails-to 20-30 relevant contacts. Explain the specific problem you're solving and ask for honest feedback, not just signups. Offer exclusive early access benefits.

Whatever you do, don't spam your entire LinkedIn network or post generic "Check out my startup!" messages.

Building Community Around Your Product

Here's a secret most founders miss: stop trying to build an audience from scratch. Go where your users already congregate. Find five communities where your target customers hang out-industry subreddits, Facebook or LinkedIn groups, Slack or Discord communities, or Twitter circles.

The golden rule? Help for two weeks before mentioning your product. Answer questions thoroughly, share your expertise freely, and only mention your product when it's directly relevant to someone's problem.

One founder spent 30 minutes daily helping people in a freelancer Facebook group for six weeks. When he finally mentioned his invoicing tool as a genuine solution to someone's problem, he got 40 signups in 48 hours.

"The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing. It feels like helping."

Content as Your Growth Engine

Pick ONE channel and own it. For long-term compound growth, choose a blog with SEO focus. For B2B, LinkedIn works best. For tech and startup audiences, Twitter threads perform well. For complex products, YouTube tutorials are unbeatable.

Write content that addresses real problems. "How to track remote team productivity without expensive software" converts better than "10 productivity tips." Your comparison content-like "Asana vs ClickUp for freelance designers"-ranks fast and converts high.

One startup ranks #3 for "Asana alternative for small agencies" with 850 monthly searches and converts 6% of visitors to signups. Quality beats quantity: 1-2 strong posts weekly outperform five mediocre ones.

The Power of Strategic Partnerships

Find 3-5 products that serve the same audience but don't compete directly. Build simple integrations between your tools, co-create content like webinars or guides, cross-promote in newsletters, or set up affiliate relationships with 20-30% commissions.

A time-tracking startup partnered with an invoicing tool. Simple integration plus co-marketing drove 150 signups in the first month.

Borrowing Established Audiences

Instead of building from zero, borrow existing audiences. Search "[your industry] podcast" on Apple Podcasts and pitch shows with 1,000-10,000 listeners (they need guests). Each appearance can drive 20-100 visitors and 2-10 signups if you nail your message.

Guest post on mid-tier blogs where your ideal customers read. They're more likely to accept your pitch than major publications. Write genuinely helpful content, not sales pitches, and include one contextual link. One quality guest post can drive traffic for years.

Sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out) at helpareporter.com. Spend 30 minutes daily responding to relevant queries, providing expert insights to journalists. You can earn 2-5 high-authority backlinks monthly. One founder got featured in TechCrunch through HARO-that article drove 2,000 visitors and 50 signups.

Making Your Users Your Marketers

Your happiest customers are your best salespeople-you just need to activate them. Send personal thank-you messages to your first 10 users. Actually implement their feedback. Create an exclusive "founding members" group. Offer lifetime benefits or significant discounts.

Referred users have 37% higher retention than users from other channels, according to Startup Genome research.

Launch a simple referral program: give the referrer one month free or $20 credit, give the referred user 20% off their first month, and track everything in a spreadsheet if needed. Between 10-30% of satisfied customers will refer someone if you ask.

Do Things That Don't Scale

Paul Graham's famous advice still works because it's true. Send 10 personalized cold emails daily to relevant prospects. Comment on 20 relevant social media posts every day. Attend 2-3 virtual or in-person meetups weekly. Personally onboard every single user in your first 50.

This won't scale to 10,000 users, but that's not the point. Airbnb founders personally photographed listings. DoorDash founders personally delivered food. You can hustle too.

Optimizing for Conversions

Half of people who sign up will never return unless you nail onboarding. Show value within 60 seconds of signup. Use a progress bar for multi-step onboarding. Send a welcome email immediately with clear next steps. Follow up within 24 hours if they haven't taken the key action that delivers value.

Time how long it takes a new user to experience your product's main benefit. If it's over 5 minutes, simplify.

Building in Public Works

Share your journey transparently on Twitter threads, Indie Hackers posts, LinkedIn updates, or your blog. Post your actual revenue numbers-real founders find this valuable. Share your product decisions and reasoning. Talk about wins and losses, especially the losses. Show behind-the-scenes of building.

Be genuinely helpful and transparent, not promotional. One founder tweeted their journey from $0 to $10K MRR and gained 5,000 followers plus 200+ customers who discovered them through those threads.

What to Expect and When

The first month feels like shouting into the void. That's normal. Keep executing.

Track Only What Matters

Ignore vanity metrics. Focus on organic traffic growth (target 10-20% monthly), signup conversion rate (2-4% for SaaS is solid), activation rate (30-50% of signups should become active users), and which traffic sources bring the best users.

Review weekly. Kill the bottom 50% of your activities and double down on the top 25%. Be ruthless.

What Usually Goes Wrong

Founders wait to start, thinking they need more features first. The truth? SEO takes months. Start on day one.

They target only high-volume keywords when 100 targeted visitors are worth more than 1,000 random ones.

They create content without distributing it. Each piece needs active promotion-"build it and they will come" is a lie.

They give up before 12 weeks. The first month feels like shouting into the void. Keep going.

The Real Secret

You know what beats a $50K marketing budget? Showing up consistently for 90 days straight.

30 minutes daily equals 15 hours monthly, which equals 45 hours over 90 days. That's enough time to write 20 blog posts, pitch 60 podcasts, help hundreds of people in communities, and build meaningful partnerships.

A founder on our platform started with 12 organic visitors per month. After 8 months of consistent work-one blog post weekly, 30 minutes daily on Reddit, email newsletter every Wednesday, monthly podcast appearances-they reached 2,400 organic visitors monthly, 48 signups per month, and SEO now drives 34% of their revenue.

Not sexy. Not viral. Just consistent, strategic execution that compounds over time.

---

Need your first users? List your startup on Startup Listing to get discovered by founders, investors, and early adopters actively looking for new products.