How to Get Your First 100 Users

Published 2025-10-18

I’ve mentored or observed dozens of indie founders push through that magical—but brutal—phase from zero to ~100 real users. It’s where ideas either find air or suffocate under silence.

Below’s a refined playbook, now with real stories from Indie Hackers founders who actually did it (and published their journeys).

1. Why 100 Users Is the Real Validation Milestone

“First 100 users” isn’t about vanity. It’s about signal, not scale.

When you hit that mark:

You go beyond your inner circle or your warm network.
You test whether strangers care enough to try, come back, or talk about you.
You unearth the friction, objections, and language your product must survive on.

Many founders share how they struggled to get beyond “friends and family.” In the thread How/Where did you find your first 1, 10 and 100 customer? on Indie Hackers, people mention starting with Quora, private forums, LinkedIn, and manual DMs.

Those early channels often bleed into the later, scalable ones. If you can’t get 100 manually, you probably don’t have something people feel enough pain for.

2. The Traction Triangle (Offer → Channel → Proof)

I always come back to a triangle: Offer, Channel, Proof. If any side is weak, traction crumbles.

Offer — (Clear, Narrow, Repeatable)

Your description must be crisp, familiar, and repeatable. Not clever. Not over-engineered.

Don’t ask people to infer, guess, or feel. Tell them: “I built X to help Y do Z.”

Channel — (Go to Existing Conversations)

Your early users exist somewhere already talking. Your job: find them.

In the Indie Hackers post How I got my first 100 users, one founder broke down where their users came from:

Reddit → 60
Discord → 25
IndieHackers → 15
Twitter & HackerNews → 0

The lesson? Don’t spray everywhere. Pick the few places where your niche lives and care.

Proof — (Momentum, Transparency, Social Signals)

Even before you have case studies, you can borrow credibility:

“We shipped a feature this week because 3 users asked for it.”
“We have 25 people actively using loops daily.”
Screenshots, comments, bug reports, public roadmap — all count.

In From 0 to 100 Paying Users: The Exact Threads Content Strategy, Lucia shares how she posted behind-the-scenes screenshots, user feedback, and her roadmap. That transparency became the proof.

3. Understand Early Adopter Behavior

Your first users = explorers. They’re not buying stability. They're buying possibility, identity, and novelty.

They care about:

Your narrative (Why you built this).
Responsiveness (Do you listen and ship).
Real improvement (even small ones).
Clear fit (they see how it solves their problem).

These people will forgive missing features. They will help you shape the product. Use them like co-founders.

In How I got my first 100 users via Reddit, Austin recounts how he posted in niche subreddits, then DM’d each respondent personally, asking about their main pain — not just pitching. That deeper interaction turned uncertain sign-ups into invested users.

4. Step-by-Step 7-Day Traction Plan

Here’s a more fleshed out version, now with pointers to real practices from founders:

Day	Focus	Action + Indie Hackers Tips
Day 1	Clarify Offer	Write your one-liner. Share with non-founder friends and revise. Check how people phrase similar problems in forums (use the language they already use).
Day 2	Discover Channels	Dive into forums, subreddits, Slack/Discord groups your target uses. In How to acquire your first 100 customers with no prior experience, one founder asked a subreddit for marketing channel ideas and used their feedback to guide launch.
Day 3	Earn Permission	Comment, reply, add value. Don’t post your link. Be known as someone trying, not someone selling.
Day 4	Soft Launch / Reveal	Write your story: “I built this because I was frustrated by X.” Post it where your users already talk — Reddit, niche Discord, Indie Hackers. In My First SaaS: A Journey to 100 Users in One Week, the founder shared daily progress publicly and hit 100 users in ~7 days.
Day 5	Engage & Qualify	DM or reply personally to commenters. Ask “What’s your biggest friction?” or “What would make this useful to you?” Don’t try to convert everyone — learn.
Day 6	Ship a Visible Improvement	Fix or add something small that came up in feedback. Then announce it openly. That shows you listen.
Day 7	Show Progress & Loop	Share a “week one” update — what you shipped, how many sign-ups, feedback you got. This becomes content you can reshare.

Cycle this weekly until you hit 100, then continuously refine.

5. Real Case Studies (with Indie Hackers Links)

Case A: 1000 Pound Club

From How I got my first 100 users:

Reddit delivered ~60 users, Discord ~25, Indie Hackers ~15, Twitter/HN zero.
They adapted: doubling down on subreddit where lifters hang out.
They also responded to user feature requests quickly (within hours) during launch.

This shows: niche matters; speed + responsiveness signal you care.

Case B: VEED (Video Editor)

In How VEED Video Editing Platform Got Its First 100 Customers, VEED used early signups, word of mouth, and quick iteration to build trust and momentum. Even as they scaled, the core was founder-led conversations.

Case C: Blog Recorder

From My First SaaS: A Journey to 100 Users in One Week, the founder documented daily launches, feedback, tweaks, and posted updates publicly — using that public narrative to attract users and retain momentum.

Case D: Lucia’s Threads Strategy

From 0 to 100 Paying Users: The Exact Threads Content Strategy — a content-first route. Lucia pulled her first 100 users by combining value content, behind-the-scenes storytelling, and product-as-proof.

6. Common Mistakes Founders Make (Backed by Real Examples)

Launching everywhere at once
The “first 100” post shows founders launched on Twitter, HN, Reddit, Discord, etc. But many got zero from some channels. Focus beats breadth.
(source)
Slow or no personal follow-up
In the 1,000 Pound Club case, the founder noted that missing feature requests hurt retention.
(source)
Not being understandable
If your offer is vague, users won’t grasp why to try.
(source)
Not showing momentum or proof
Founders who didn’t share updates or user feedback struggled to build trust. Lucia’s strategy explicitly uses progress posts as proof.
(source)
Ignoring communities where your users live
Many founders tried general audiences (HN, Twitter), but niche subreddits, Discord, and Indie Hackers produced more traction.
(source)

7. Summary Checklist (with real-case reminders)

Before you kick off:

✅ Offer is simple, clear, empathetic (people in 1 post understand it).
✅ You’ve picked 1–2 deep channels where your niche truly lives.
✅ You are ready to DM/comment/respond to every signal.
✅ You commit to showing progress publicly (updates, feedback).
✅ You have at least one founder persona willing to talk to new users.

If you take away one lesson:
Traction isn’t a launch event — it’s a rhythm of small public actions that create compounding trust.

Getting your first 100 users is not about more traffic, it’s about fewer, better conversations.

Related

Get First 100 users for SaaS

💪 Ready to build your own 100-user breakthrough?
Join Indie10k — the growth gym for indie founders.
Do one small rep a day, track your momentum, and turn your project into a habit that compounds.

🧭 Start your 7-rep free trial → indie10k.com
Because traction isn’t luck — it’s daily reps that build momentum.

Keep Going!