Growth guides for early-stage founders.
How to find your first customers, test your idea, and grow with experiments you can measure.
What is a growth experiment, and how do you run one?
A growth experiment is a small, planned test where you change one thing, watch one number, run it for a set length of time, and then decide to keep it or stop it. You write down what you expect before you start, so the result tells you something real instead of a guess.
How do you get your first customers?
To get your first customers, go to them one by one. Start with people you know, then the online groups where your buyers already talk, then direct messages to strangers. Have far more real conversations than feels normal, ask for money early, and try each channel for one to two weeks.
How do you validate a startup idea?
To validate a startup idea, prove the problem is real before you build anything. Talk to people who have the problem, ask about the last time it happened and what they did about it, and look for pain they already spend time or money on. Then ask for a small commitment. Kind words do not count.
How do you validate demand before you build?
To validate demand, ask people to take a real step before the product exists, then count who does it. Start with a landing page and waitlist, move to a fake door test, then ask for money with pre-orders, pre-sales or a paid pilot. Set the number you need before you start, and run each test for a set length.
How do you grow an early-stage startup?
To grow an early-stage startup, pick one number that shows people want what you sell, like revenue or active users, then run small, cheap tests across a few marketing channels. Check the number every week, stop what does not move it, and put most of your time into the one channel that does.
How do you get your first pilot customer?
To get your first pilot customer, pick a few companies with a painful problem you solve, ask a person with budget for a short, paid test of one use case, and agree in writing on one success metric, an end date and the price if it works. A pilot is a test that ends in a yes or no.
Run your first experiment.
Connect your tools, and Theanna suggests the first thing to test from your own numbers.