How To Get Your First Users

YC General Partner Ankit Gupta reframes the MVP as a ‘minimum evolvable product’ that survives and adapts to early adopters rather than launching complete.

• Finding first users is a search problem, not a persuasion problem — target people with burning needs or habitual early-adopter behavior.
• Charge real money immediately; paying customers give sharper feedback than free users and are rarely price-sensitive at the early stage.
• Average personal software spend is ~$150/month total; corporate cards carry multiple tools each costing more, pushing AI founders toward B2B or prosumers.
• Tesla Roadster framing: the $150K impractical EV was a search algorithm for early adopters, which path-dependently shaped Model Y’s 0-60 over comfort.
• Product evolution is path-dependent — who your first users are determines what the product becomes at mass scale, not a clean-room design process.
• Don’t fear churn in early experiments; startups fight relevance, not headlines, so bad experiments go unnoticed unlike at big companies.
• Use targeted cold outreach and personal channels to find early adopters — billboards reach the wrong audience entirely.

2026-01-14 · Watch on YouTube