MY FIRST MILLION · EXTRACTED
How to Get Your First 100 Customers
10 tactics Sam Parr and Shaan Puri actually used, pulled straight from the podcast and turned into a playbook.
Preview · 3 of 10 tactics
"Your first 100 customers are not found — they're hunted. Every single one is a deliberate act."
Sam Parr built The Hustle to 1.5 million subscribers and sold it to HubSpot. Shaan Puri ran Bebo, sold it, and built several companies to 8-figure exits. Together, they've helped dozens of founders get through the hardest stage of any business — the first 100. This is the playbook they actually used.
Do Things That Don't Scale (Then Stop)
Sam's first 1,000 Hustle subscribers came from him personally emailing every person he knew. He drafted 500 individual emails over two weekends. Not a mass blast — actual one-to-one messages. "I knew if I could get 50 people I trusted to subscribe, they'd tell 5 each." It was exhausting. It was also the only way to prove the product before investing in growth infrastructure.
THE PLAY
Identify your 50 most networked, trusted contacts. Email each one personally with a specific reason why they'd love it. Ask them to share with three people. Don't automate this. The friction is the point — it forces you to refine your pitch.
Find Where Your Customers Already Gather
Shaan launched a product for startup founders and spent his first month on Hacker News, ProductHunt, and two Slack communities for founders. Not posting — reading. He mapped every question that came up more than twice. Then he posted answers to those questions with a subtle mention of his product. "I didn't go fishing. I went to where the fish already were, and I brought the right bait."
THE PLAY
List the top 5 online communities where your ideal customer spends time. Lurk for two weeks. Document the top 10 most common questions or pain points. Answer them genuinely, without pitching. After 15+ valuable contributions, your product becomes a natural footnote.
The Concierge MVP
Before building the tech, Sam ran The Hustle's newsletter curation manually. Every morning he'd read 40 sources, pick the best stories, and paste them into an email. Zero automation. He did this for 90 days to confirm people actually wanted it before writing a single line of code. "If I'd built the product first, I'd have spent 6 months building the wrong thing."
THE PLAY
Before you build anything, do the job manually for at least 10 customers. Use Google Docs, Notion, email — whatever. Charge them if you can. This validates demand, surfaces the real problems, and gives you paying customers to interview.
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7 more tactics + Action Plan
TACTIC 04
Use the "Dream Customer" Letter
TACTIC 05
Borrow Audiences With Partnerships
TACTIC 06
Create a Problem-First Content Piece
TACTIC 07
Cold Outreach With a Twist
TACTIC 08
Run a "Beta Club" Launch
TACTIC 09
Talk to Every Churned Lead
TACTIC 10
Create a Referral Engine From Day One
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MY FIRST MILLION · EXTRACTED BY PODEX