r/startups • u/Bills_08 • 2d ago
I will not promote **I will Not Promote** Does anyone know the Solution
The startup is coding but the distribution or marketing or reaching the First customer without lack of funds seems hard.
I don't know if i am being weird asking this but how do you guys solved the Funding issues, My idea was to get a 4-5 client base , Reinvest the amount and keep reinvesting to the point i felt it a complete automated system.
But i am nowhere and stuck , Does anybody has some solution how to restart the build without the funds or if needed how can i make them appear out of nowhere.
Asking this because without a few simple automations everything is taking too long to do.
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u/tonytidbit 2d ago
I want to turn this around and ask you where you thought customers and their money would come from, before you started building. What were your thoughts back then?
how can i make them appear out of nowhere
Did you think that they would before you started building?
I'm borderline calling you out here like you were stupid thinking that it'd be that easy to just get like free money from paying customers showing up from nowhere, but that's actually not my point.
My point is to get to what your GTM strategy was. Perhaps it wasn't articulated as a proper go-to-market strategy, but I'm trying to make you articulate it here and now. What were your thoughts before you built it, what did you try at the same time as you were building, and what have you done for how long between having built it and this post here and now?
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u/Bills_08 2d ago
I will be honest with you and thanks for being so direct in asking this -
So My thoughts were not at customers but completing a Neat and clean build with end to end Airtight system to be honest i was delusional in thinking after the build i would start the distribution phase which was completely wrong i realize that.
And no I did not Have any GTM strategy - It was simple outreach through Consistent Cold Emails , finding people and agencies and like that. Pitching and Showing them what i have built and how can it be useful.
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u/tonytidbit 2d ago
Then you need to go back to the basics, and network with those you think would be your target market for this product. Not to sell to them, but to listen to what they say.
Go to local events/meetups and meet these people in person.
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u/SirShipALot 2d ago
You don't need money for automations yet. Your first four or five clients won't care if the work behind the scenes is done by hand, they care that it gets done. My rule is nothing gets built until someone has said they'd pay for it. Get one client paying, do the work manually, and let that tell you which automation to build first.
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u/alexid95 2d ago
i'd pause the automations for a week. 5 manual messages a day gives you 25 chances to learn why the offer gets ignored before you code more.
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u/Bills_08 2d ago
I am sending 10-15 daily
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u/alexid95 1d ago
then volume isn't the issue. i'd rewrite the offer until 1 in 20 answers, not send 30 more copies of the same pitch.
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u/Brufacee 2d ago
I'd separate the automations you need to deliver a paid result from the ones that would just save time later. Could you deliver the first client's result partly by hand? That gives you a smaller thing to sell and fund, instead of needing the whole automated system before anyone pays.
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u/Bills_08 2d ago
You are absolutely right , i think i am thinking too far ahead with automation thing when i don't even have one client yet !
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u/Brufacee 1d ago
Yeah, I would try selling one small result you can deliver by hand first. Once somebody pays, you will know which part is actually worth automating.
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u/Ordinary-Stuff9826 2d ago
not weird at all, most people get stuck right here. i’d say stop trying to automate stuff before you have customers. first 5 clients should be super manual, dm people, jump on calls, even do the work by hand if you have to
for my clients that i develop products for, they were already doing marketing like posting and talking about their products in different online communities and forums, genuinely sharing how they built it. one of my clients went way beyond that, he was spending around 16 hours a day posting on every social you can think of about how usefull the product was, and it literally worked for him. he got some traction and eventually landed a good amount of clients
not scalable at all but it gets you started, and you dont need any funding for it
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u/Bills_08 2d ago
You're right consistently looking for first few clients should be my priority ! Thanks for the advice !
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u/mahee522 2d ago
I was in this exact spot last year, product built and zero clue how to get it in front of anyone. What actually worked was me hand-writing like 40 emails to people in one niche facebook group, each with a screenshot of their workflow mocked up with my thing in it. 3 replied and 1 paid. Forget the automations for now, you're not there yet.
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u/VIDEOWITHMARK 2d ago
Bootstrapping is the best way to move forward. The effort it takes to procure a grant or funding would cost you a lot of time. I would start through word of mouth and try and close a corporate subscription deal with some customisations or whitelabelling with someone who has clients.
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u/rakeshkanna91 1d ago
I burned weeks chasing grants, then closed my first pilot through one warm introduction.
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u/Bills_08 2d ago
Look i will tell you what's happening here i have a product and a website , but i don't know if word of mouth can work for me i need to find a way to distribute it and once i get a few hundred dollars in my hand reinvest them and make my project run further and so on. Am i making any sense ?
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u/VIDEOWITHMARK 1d ago
No your strategy makes absolutely no sense. No one is going to see a website, explainer video or demo video and decide to subscribe. There’s always something better. It’s hard pill to swallow. Nepotism works. Try and get a friend and uncle or someone to use it, better the product based on actual real world feedback and then sell it to their friends. After a while you may start to see enquiries and sales come in.
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u/mydnic 1d ago
You probably do not need funding first. You need a repeatable way to get in front of the first few people who already have the pain.
What I would do:
- pick one niche only
- find 20 to 30 prospects manually
- write very short personalized outreach
- sell a small pilot or done for you version
- use those conversations to fix positioning
A lot of founders try to automate before they have a message that gets replies. That usually just saves time on a process that does not work yet.
For first customers, plain manual outreach is enough if the niche is tight enough and the pain is real. You do not need ads. You do not need a big funnel. You need a list of real prospects and a reason they should care now.
I built Eveil for exactly this kind of step once you know who you want to target, but honestly I would still start painfully manual for the first few customers.
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u/No_Emergency_3418 1d ago
Are you reaching out to your potential customers? Do you know your target audience? Why do people come into building thinking they're just going to get funded
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u/chillaranch 1d ago
Your plan of landing 4-5 clients and reinvesting is honestly how a lot of bootstrapped businesses start. I've built a small service business that way myself. For the first few customers, skip "marketing" and do direct outreach: talk to 20-30 people who have the problem, help a couple of them almost by hand, and ask for referrals. Once paying customers keep telling you the same thing, that becomes your pitch for everyone else.
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u/Bills_08 1d ago
I think that's the way i mean direct outreach is better and reinvesting whatever small amount you get to get more traction is what i am aiming for , i know money isn't made in a day or a month it needs a lot of time and efforts and i am just looking for the right advice and direction for it !
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2d ago
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u/Bills_08 2d ago
That's really Helpful and i have taken a few notes plus taken screenshot of this to keep this in mind
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u/XLeadsKit 1d ago
I see this exact challenge in many startup discussions on r/startups, where senior people struggle to find customers on LinkedIn, X, and Reddit. The root cause often lies in not being able to market their services and product effectively. I'd like to help you identify a potential fix by asking: what specific process adjustments do you think could help you grow your audience on these platforms?
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u/[deleted] 2d ago
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