How to find your first 10 users near you

You built the thing. You posted it. Then nothing happened.

That's the normal first launch. In a 2026 Hacker News thread, a solo developer with no audience asked how anyone gets their first real users, since "you need traction to get traction." One reply summed up the mood: "Most launches are received with dead silence." Another was more useful: "The hard part is not building a working product. The hard part is finding people to use it."

The good news is that ten users is a small number. You don't need a growth engine for ten. You need a list, a free afternoon, and a willingness to talk to strangers.

Why you have to go and get them

Paul Graham's "Do Things that Don't Scale" is still the clearest essay on this. "You can't wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them." He tells the story of the Collison brothers at Stripe. Most founders would answer "yes, I'll try it" with "great, we'll send you a link." The Collisons would say "Right then, give me your laptop" and set people up on the spot.

He also names why founders avoid it: they'd "rather sit at home writing code than go out and talk to a bunch of strangers and probably be rejected by most of them." That's honest, and it's the main thing standing between most products and their first ten users.

Why near you helps

Your first users don't have to be local. But starting close to home has real advantages:

• You can watch them use it. Sitting next to someone while they try your product shows you every confusing button in ten minutes.
• People say yes more easily in person. Five minutes face to face beats five follow-up emails.
• You can go back. A week later, you can ask "did you use it again?" over coffee instead of hoping they reply.
• Local users talk to each other. In a dense city like San Francisco, one happy user often knows three more people with the same problem.

Step 1: Write down exactly who the first ten are

"Startups" or "small businesses" is too broad. Be specific: "founders running paid pilots who track them in spreadsheets," or "independent coffee shops with fewer than ten staff." Then answer three questions:

• Where do these people spend their working day?
• Where do they go to learn, complain or meet peers?
• Who already has their attention?

If you built it for yourself, Graham points out the shortcut: "you only have to find your peers, which is usually straightforward."

Step 2: Make a list of thirty

Thirty names or places, to get ten users. Mix:

• People you already know who fit
• People one introduction away
• Places your users gather: coworking spaces, build nights, industry meetups, specific cafés
• Businesses you can walk into

Step 3: Go where they are and ask for five minutes

One founder in a 2016 HN thread about the first ten customers sold to retail and real-estate businesses. Emailing hadn't worked, so they said: "I literally go to their workplace & ask them for 5 minutes of their time." Another reply suggested "going to meetups of your target customer and building relationships."

Both work for the same reason: you're showing up where the problem lives. Keep the ask small. "I built something for people who do X. Can I show you in five minutes and hear what's wrong with it?"

Step 4: Set them up on the spot

Don't send a link for later. Do the Collison install: get them signed up and through the first useful action while you're sitting there. Most early drop-off happens between "sure, I'll try it" and actually trying it. You can close that gap yourself.

Step 5: Don't spam communities

Online communities can help, but tread carefully. One reply in the 2026 thread was blunt: "No one likes someone who joins a community just to self-promote." If you want to use a forum, Slack or Discord, be a useful member first. Answer questions. Share what you learned building the thing. Mention your product only when it's genuinely the answer.

Step 6: Keep a simple tracker

A spreadsheet is enough. One row per person:

• Name and how you met
• What problem they described, in their words
• Did they sign up? Did they come back after a week?
• What they asked for

After ten rows you'll start to see patterns. That's the real point of the first ten users: they tell you who the next hundred are.

Step 7: Follow the most enthusiastic users

Graham describes how Ben Silbermann noticed that many early Pinterest users were interested in design, so "he went to a conference of design bloggers to recruit users, and that worked well." Look at your tracker. Who used it most? What do they have in common? Go and find more people like them.

Step 8: Make the first ten feel looked after

Graham mentions that Wufoo sent each new user a hand-written thank-you note. You don't have to do exactly that, but do something personal: a message from you, a fix shipped within a day of their complaint, a coffee to hear what's next. Early users who feel heard become the people who recommend you.

Where The Build Nation fits

The Build Nation is a free, real-time network for builders, investors, mentors and businesses, live in San Francisco. It's most useful here if your first users are builders themselves: developer tools, founder tools, products for startups and small teams.

You can start a quick meetup at a café or coworking spot near you, choose "Demo / show & tell" or "Co-work", and let nearby builders request to join. Share the meetup's link (/m/your-meetup-name) wherever your users already are. In Meet, the people suggested to you are ordered by field and stage, so you can find builders who match the users you're after. When you ship something, post a "Shipped:" update on the community board. It counts toward your proof of work, and it's a natural way for people to discover what you've built.

If your first users aren't builders, say coffee shop owners or nurses, The Build Nation won't be your channel, and that's fine. The steps above still work. Go where your users are, ask for five minutes, and set them up on the spot.