Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, a potential client came to me with an exciting opportunity: build a two-sided marketplace platform for a substantial budget. The technical challenge was interesting, and it would have been one of my biggest projects to date. I said no.
Why? Because they told me something that revealed the real problem: "We want to see if our idea is worth pursuing." They had no existing audience, no validated customer base, no proof of demand. Just an idea and enthusiasm.
Here's what most founders miss: if you're truly testing market demand, your first 100 users shouldn't cost you anything except time and effort. The constraint isn't building—it's knowing what to build and for whom.
After years of working with SaaS startups and seeing this pattern repeatedly, I've developed a systematic approach to finding your first 100 users without spending a dime. This isn't about growth hacking or viral loops—it's about manual, unglamorous work that actually validates demand.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why the "build first, users later" approach kills most startups
The 1-day MVP validation framework I use with clients
How to turn manual processes into your first 100 engaged users
The distribution-first mindset that changes everything
Real examples from client projects that found users before building features
Industry Reality
What every startup founder believes about user acquisition
The startup world is obsessed with the "build it and they will come" mythology. Every founder I meet has the same basic plan:
Build the perfect MVP - Usually takes 3-6 months
Launch on Product Hunt - Hope for viral magic
Start marketing - Finally think about users
Scale with paid ads - Throw money at the problem
Pray for product-market fit - Cross fingers and hope
This conventional wisdom exists because it feels productive. Building features gives you a sense of progress. Talking to users feels messy and uncertain. The tech industry celebrates builders, not validators.
But here's the uncomfortable truth: most startups die not because they couldn't build, but because they built something nobody wanted. The graveyard of failed startups is full of perfectly functional products with zero users.
The traditional approach fails because it treats distribution as an afterthought. You spend months in isolation, then suddenly expect the world to care about your creation. Meanwhile, your competitors who focus on distribution from day one are already building relationships with your potential users.
What you really need is to flip this entire process. Start with users, then build what they actually want.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The marketplace client I mentioned earlier isn't unique. I see this pattern constantly—founders who want to "test their idea" by building a full product first. But my experience has taught me something different.
The breakthrough came from working with a B2B SaaS client who was struggling with acquisition. Everyone told them to build more features, improve the product, add integrations. Instead, I dug into their analytics and discovered something interesting: their best customers were coming from the founder's personal LinkedIn content, not their product features.
The "direct" conversions weren't really direct—they were people who had been following the founder's content, building trust over time, then typing the URL directly when they were ready to buy. We were treating SaaS like an e-commerce product when it's actually a trust-based service.
This taught me a fundamental lesson: your first 100 users aren't looking for your product—they're looking for a solution to their problem. They don't care about your features, your technology, or your vision. They care about getting their job done.
Another client wanted to build an AI-powered platform. The budget was there, the technical team was ready. But when I asked "Who's your first customer?" they couldn't name a specific person. That's when I realized: we weren't building a product, we were building an expensive hypothesis.
The real insight hit me: if you can't get 100 users to care about your idea before you build it, you definitely can't get them to care after you build it. The building doesn't create demand—it just makes your idea more expensive to validate.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's the framework I now use with every startup client, and it consistently finds the first 100 users without any budget:
Step 1: The One-Day Validation Test
Before writing a single line of code, create a simple landing page or Notion doc explaining your value proposition. Don't build anything—just explain what you'd build and why it matters. If you can't get 10 people interested in a simple explanation, you won't get 100 interested in a complex product.
Step 2: Manual Matchmaking Week
Spend a full week manually connecting with potential users. Not through ads or automation—through direct outreach, relevant communities, and personal networks. Your goal isn't to sell; it's to understand their current painful process and offer to solve it manually.
For that marketplace client, I recommended starting with WhatsApp groups and email introductions instead of building a platform. For the AI startup, we suggested offering the analysis as a consulting service first.
Step 3: The Manual MVP
This is the critical insight most founders miss: your first MVP should be your marketing and sales process, not your product. Solve the problem manually for your first 10-20 users. Use spreadsheets, email, and phone calls. Figure out what actually works before automating anything.
One client wanted to build a review automation tool. Instead of coding, we set up a manual process using Zapier and Google Sheets. We got our first 30 users by personally managing their review collection for a month. Only after proving the demand did we build the actual software.
Step 4: Document Everything
While you're solving problems manually, document every step, every pain point, every "I wish we had" moment. This becomes your product roadmap, but more importantly, it becomes your marketing content. Share your learnings publicly—this attracts more users than any feature announcement.
Step 5: The Distribution-First Pivot
Here's what I learned from analyzing successful clients: distribution beats product quality every time. Don't ask "What should we build?" Ask "Where are our users already gathering, and how can we provide value there?"
For B2B SaaS, this often means LinkedIn content and industry communities. For e-commerce, it's wherever your customers already shop and research. For marketplaces, it's finding one side first and serving them perfectly before worrying about the other side.
Validation First
Test demand with simple explanations before building anything complex. A Notion page beats months of development.
Manual MVP
Solve problems manually for 10-20 users before automating. Your process becomes your product roadmap.
Distribution Hunt
Find where your users already gather. Join their conversations instead of trying to create new ones.
Document Journey
Share your manual process learnings publicly. This attracts users better than feature announcements.
Using this framework, I've seen consistent results across different client projects:
The B2B SaaS client who discovered LinkedIn content was their real growth engine shifted their entire strategy. Instead of building more features, the founder spent 30 minutes daily sharing industry insights. Result: 3x increase in qualified leads without changing the product.
The marketplace project that almost became a costly development nightmare instead started with manual introductions via email. They found their first 50 users on both sides of the market before writing any code. When they finally built the platform, they had a waiting list.
The review automation client proved demand by manually managing reviews for 30 stores using existing tools. This manual process generated $15K in revenue before they spent a dollar on development.
The pattern is always the same: manual validation leads to faster user acquisition, better product-market fit, and lower customer acquisition costs. You learn what users actually want, not what you think they want.
Most importantly, these manual processes often become competitive advantages. The relationships you build, the insights you gain, and the reputation you develop can't be replicated by competitors who just copy your features.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After applying this approach across dozens of client projects, here are the key lessons that consistently matter:
Speed to user feedback beats speed to market - Getting user input in week one is more valuable than launching in month three
Manual processes scale better than you think - You can serve 100+ users manually while building the right product
Users prefer humans over perfect products - People will tolerate manual processes if you're solving a real problem
Distribution insights come from manual work - You only discover the best acquisition channels by doing the work yourself
Revenue validation matters more than user count - One paying user beats 100 free signups for understanding demand
Community beats features - Users stick around for the people and relationships, not just the product
Your story becomes your moat - Sharing your manual journey creates content that attracts similar users
The biggest mistake I see is founders who skip the manual phase because it "doesn't scale." But here's what I've learned: things that don't scale often teach you how to scale the right things.
This approach works best for founders who can commit to daily user interaction for at least 30 days. It doesn't work if you're afraid of rejection or unwilling to do unglamorous manual work.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups applying this playbook:
Start with founder-led content on LinkedIn before building features
Offer consulting services to learn customer workflows manually
Use existing tools (Zapier, Airtable) to create manual MVPs
Focus on one user persona and serve them perfectly
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores using this approach:
Start with curated product lists before building inventory
Use social media to build community around your niche
Test demand with pre-orders and waitlists
Partner with existing communities instead of building from scratch