Axel Schapmann

Getting your first customer is really hard... SquidX has a 7-day free trial with a credit card, and for the first time, one user didn't cancel. I was so happy when I saw it. This morning I woke up excited, thinking I was finally going to unlock my first MRR on this project 🥹 And then the payment failed... Honestly, that one hurt. Building a project is far from easy, and you should stop believing all the numbers you see on social media. It can take a long time before things start moving. But you should keep going if you see small signals that there's real potential!!

"How do you find customers?" That's one of the questions I get the most when I share my SaaS numbers, like recently reaching €1,000 MRR with MyFeedIn. Now, I want to do the same with my new SaaS to grow on X (SquidX), so here's the exact plan I'm going to follow. (🔖 Bookmark this post if you want to come back to it later) 1/ Build great free tools I usually start working on SEO from day one because it takes time to see results. Free tools are one of my favorite strategies. They can attract a lot of organic traffic, generate backlinks, and help your other pages rank better over time. The goal is to build something genuinely useful that people are already searching for. 2/ Create alternatives, comparison, and feature pages These pages are the foundation of my SEO strategy, alongside free tools. They help position your product against competitors and attract people who are already looking for a solution. I usually start with alternatives and comparison pages because the search intent is much closer to buying than with a typical blog post. 3/ Find your marketing channel In my case, it's organic content on LinkedIn and X. That's how I've found my first users for almost every product I've launched. But it doesn't have to be social media. It could be Reddit, YouTube, cold outreach, or something completely different. The important thing is to find a channel that works for you and that you can consistently invest time in. 4/ Do things that don't scale At the beginning, don't wait for customers to magically discover your product. Find people who might need it. Reply to their posts, participate in relevant discussions, and reach out to them personally. You don't need thousands of visitors to get your first customers. Sometimes, a few conversations are enough. 5/ Contact every new user One of the most important things to grow a SaaS is to build a product people actually want to keep using. And the easiest way to understand what they need is to talk to them. I try to contact new users, ask what they're trying to achieve, and understand what's missing. Unfortunately, most people won't respond. That's why I also use PostHog and session replays to see how people actually use the product and where they get stuck. 6/ Follow your metrics Visitors → Signups → Customers This is the funnel I pay the most attention to. Track the conversion rate at each step and try to improve at least one thing every week. Sometimes, getting more customers isn't about bringing more traffic. It's about converting the visitors you already have. 7/ Be your first user I love building products that I personally need because I can use them every day. You quickly notice bugs, missing features, and frustrating experiences that you might never discover otherwise. A lot of the improvements I've made to my products came from using them myself. Of course, you don't have to be your own target customer, but you need to understand how people actually use your product. 8/ Double down on what works You don't need to be everywhere. If one channel starts bringing customers, spend more time on it. If a free tool starts ranking, build another one. If a particular type of content performs well, try to understand why and do more of it. __ I've lost count of how many times I've revisited the same feature, landing page, or marketing strategy to improve it. And that's probably the most important lesson I've learned. There's no magic solution to finding customers. Most of the time, it's about doing the same things consistently, measuring what works, and making small improvements every week. That's exactly what I'm going to do with SquidX. My goal is to reach 1,000€ MRR, let's see if i can do it !!

This week we learned that: → Reddit stock is down because of AI answers → Google stock is down because of AI answers → Your website traffic is down because of AI answers The internet has entered a new era. We don't search and consume information the same way anymore. In my opinion, if you're building a SaaS and want to succeed in the future, the real moat is having an audience. It's the only distribution channel you actually control. And the only way you'll still be able to bring hot leads to your product!