İlk 100™

Most startups fail the cold-start test by chasing any user instead of the right users. First 100™ gives you a stage-by-stage acquisition roadmap designed around who matters most at launch—so you build momentum, not just metrics.

Stop Guessing Who Your First Users Should Be

Get a custom, stage-by-stage acquisition plan that solves your cold-start problem—so you attract the right 100 users, not just any 100.

The Problem You're Actually Solving

You've built something valuable. Maybe even transformative.

But you're staring at the classic chicken-and-egg trap: creators won't join without an audience, audiences won't show up without creators. Or worse—you're not sure who should be first, so you're spraying tactics everywhere and hoping something sticks.

Most "get your first users" advice is generic growth hacking: post on Reddit, run ads, cold email everyone. That might get you numbers, but it won't get you momentum.

The startups that crack this—Behance, Airbnb, Tinder—didn't just "hustle harder." They designed user acquisition like product strategy: deliberate, sequenced, and built around who matters most at each stage.

How This Works

I help you reverse-engineer your cold-start problem and build a phased acquisition roadmap tailored to your product, market, and constraints—not a generic playbook.

What You Get:

1. Cold-Start Diagnostic (Week 1)

Map your specific chicken-and-egg challenge (supply vs. demand, network effects vs. single-player utility)
Identify which side to prioritize and why
Assess existing advantages (founder network, geographic density, vertical access)
Define your actual competitive category—not the one your competitors claim

2. First 100 User Personas (Week 1-2)

Detailed profiles for each acquisition stage: The Willing → The Forgiving → The Viral → The Valuable
Exact traits, behaviors, pain points, and current alternatives
Where to find them (communities, tools, networks, geographies)
Why they'd say yes when no one else has

3. Prioritized Acquisition Tactics (Week 2-3)
Each tactic includes:

Why it fits your startup (based on business model, resources, stage)
Week-by-week execution steps (no vague "do outreach")
Resource requirements (time, budget, tools, skills)
Success metrics and pivot signals
"Things that don't scale" checklist for founder-led work

4. 30-60-90 Day Milestone Roadmap

Clear phases: 1-10 users, 11-30, 31-60, 61-100
Quality control mechanisms (curation, onboarding friction, community guidelines)
What changes when you hit 100 and aim for 1,000

5. Category Positioning Strategy (Integrated)
How to position your acquisition story as category leadership—so early users feel like pioneers, not guinea pigs.

The Approach

This isn't a template. It's strategic thinking applied to your specific market position.

I combine:

Cold-start frameworks from marketplace/network research (Andrew Chen, Reforge)
Category creation principles that position you as a new market leader, not a cheaper alternative
Case study pattern-matching from 50+ startup launches (Behance's manual onboarding, Airbnb's photographer hack, Tinder's campus seeding)
Behavioral psychology around early adopter motivation and community formation

The output is a playbook you can hand to your team and execute immediately—or work through with my guidance over 90 days.

Who This Is For

Best fit:

Pre-launch or early-stage founders (0-500 users) facing cold-start/network effect challenges
Marketplace, community, or SaaS products where user quality > user quantity
Founders who've tried "standard" growth tactics and hit a wall
Teams ready to do high-touch, non-scalable work for the right early users

Not a fit:

Products needing millions of users to work (you need VC growth teams, not me)
Pure paid acquisition plays (I optimize for who, not just how many)
Founders unwilling to narrow focus or say no to wrong-fit users

What Makes This Different

Most growth advice optimizes for volume. I optimize for category position.

Your first 100 users aren't just customers—they're:

Living proof your category exists
Content and case studies for the next 1,000
Quality signal that filters future users
Feedback loop that sharpens product-market fit

Get them wrong, and you're fighting churn and misalignment for years. Get them right, and they become your flywheel.

Investment

Strategy Intensive (4 weeks)
$4,500 - One startup - Full deliverables above - Two live strategy sessions - 30-day email support

Strategy + Execution (90 days)
$12,000 - Everything in Intensive - Weekly check-ins and roadmap adjustments - Hands-on support through first 100 users - Pivot and optimization as you learn

Next Step

Book a 30-minute diagnostic call. I'll assess your cold-start challenge, map your category position, and outline whether this approach fits your startup.

No pitch. Just strategic clarity on your path to 100.

P.S. Want to see the thinking behind this approach first? Read my breakdown of how Behance manually onboarded their first 100 users—and why that "unscalable" tactic became their competiti ve advantage.