First-10-Customers Checklist

• Before any outreach, list 100 real humans who know you, like you, and might fit the customer profile — even roughly
• LinkedIn contacts, old colleagues, customers from past jobs, friends-of-friends
• Rank them by relevance
• Warm outreach closes three to ten times faster than cold — use the unfair advantage you already have

You are looking for the 20 highest-signal people to contact personally.

• No templates, no mass-sends
• Not a pitch
• A conversation

Each message references something specific you know about them, something specific about their world, and a single clear ask: 20 minutes on a call. If you can't make the message feel like it was written only for them, don't send it — you're wasting the one reserve of trust you have.

• Arrive early
• Ask their question back
• End with two clear next steps — one for them, one for you
• Follow up within 24 hours
• They are simply more reliable over a three-week arc than anyone the prospect has ever worked with

When they say yes, over-deliver on the conversation. The founders who close their first ten do not have better products than the ones who don't.