How to Get Your First 100 Users (Without an Ad Budget)

The first 100 users are the hardest ones, because nothing you build later works yet: no search traffic, no word of mouth, no reviews. Paul Graham's essay Do Things That Don't Scale put it bluntly in 2013: the most common unscalable thing founders have to do at the start is to recruit users manually. That is still the answer. This guide is the practical version, for a maker with no ad budget.

First, be clear about who the 100 are

"Users" is too vague to act on. Write one sentence: people who [have this problem] and currently [do this instead]. For example: "freelance designers who send invoices from a spreadsheet". Now you know where to look (design communities, freelancer forums) and what to say ("still invoicing from a spreadsheet?").

If you cannot name where those people gather, that is a signal to narrow the idea before you spend weeks promoting it.

1. Your own network: the first 10

Start with people who will reply to you. Not a blast to everyone you know, but a personal message to the ten or twenty people who fit the sentence above, or who know someone who does:

• one line on what you built and who it is for
• a direct link, no signup wall if you can avoid it
• one specific question: "would this replace your spreadsheet? what's missing?"

Most will not become customers. The point is the conversation. The questions they ask are your landing page copy, and the ones who do sign up become your first case studies.

2. Go to them, one by one: users 10 to 50

The Graham essay describes the Collison brothers at Stripe asking people to try the product and, on a yes, setting it up for them on the spot. The modern indie version:

• Search X, Reddit, Hacker News and niche forums for people describing the problem in their own words, and reply with something useful, mentioning your product only when it actually answers the question.
• Offer to set it up for people. Import their data, configure it on a call, write the first template for them.
• Email every new signup personally and ask what made them try it.

None of this scales, and that is fine. You are buying understanding, not volume.

3. Launch where makers look: a spike of attention

Launch communities send a burst of visitors and, more usefully, feedback from people who try a lot of products. The main ones are Show HN, Product Hunt, r/SideProject and Indie Hackers; we go through each, with their rules, in where to launch your side project.

A launch is not a strategy on its own. It is a day. Plan what happens to the visitors: a clear page, a way to sign up or subscribe, and you in the comments all day answering questions.

4. Build in public: a slow, compounding channel

Posting what you are building, the numbers included, turns followers into early users and early users into advocates. It works slowly and it compounds. The build in public guide covers the habits, and our list of build in public examples shows companies that shared real revenue for years.

5. Write the pages people search for

Search is the channel that keeps working while you sleep, but it takes months. Start early with pages that answer the exact question your users type: "how to [do the job your product does]", "[competitor] alternative", a free calculator or template. One genuinely useful page beats ten thin ones.

6. Make every profile a front door

Everything above sends people to your profiles before your product: they see a reply on X, click your name, then look for a link. Make that path short:

• One link in every bio, pointing at a page that shows what you build, not a generic list of buttons. A link in bio for indie hackers is built for exactly this.
• Each product with a one-line description, a screenshot and a status, so people know what is live.
• A way to follow along, such as a newsletter signup, for people not ready to try it today.
• UTM tags on each bio link, so you know which channel works. The free UTM builder makes them in seconds.

7. Count, and talk to the ones who stay

Track two numbers weekly: new users and how many are still active a few weeks later. Early on, the second matters more. If people sign up and leave, more signups will not help. Talk to the ones who stay and ask what they would miss. Once some of them pay, churn becomes the number to watch.

A realistic timeline

There is no standard number of weeks, and anyone who promises one is guessing. What tends to hold: the first 10 come from people you know or reach directly, the next 40 from going to them one by one and a launch or two, and the rest from whatever channel you notice working and then double down on.

Where makerhandle fits

makerhandle is the page your profiles point to: every project with its status, a screenshot and its own project page, a subscribe box, and analytics that show which channel sends visitors, without cookies. When the first customers pay, connect verified revenue and show the number, which is often the most-shared post of all. Free for five projects, $20 a year for Pro.