How to get your first 100 paying SaaS customers

Executive overview

Most early-stage SaaS founders chase viral growth before capturing obvious demand. Joseph scaled two products to $3M ARR by starting with the opposite: targeting people already searching for a solution.

His playbook has three steps: own the search funnel, do unscalable things to remove friction, then flood every channel your buyers use.

The fastest path to 100 customers is capturing existing demand before creating new demand.

Step 1: Own the search funnel top to bottom

• Build bottom-of-funnel comparison pages for every competitor — piggyback their traffic.
• Create mid-funnel free tools in adjacent spaces (screenshots, SOPs, tutorials) with no sign-up gate.
• Build programmatic top-of-funnel pages around workflow keywords (e.g. "how to export Figma to PDF") with interactive demos embedded.
• Track which competitor pages get cited by LLMs and optimise those first.
• Ungated product experiences convert 15–20% of visitors; free tools now drive ~20% of total traffic.

Step 2: Do things that don't scale

• Personally offer to build free demos for founders on Reddit and Indie Hackers.
• Post the finished demo inline on their thread — others see it, click it, and self-convert.
• Repeat this across many communities; a percentage will always convert.
• Goal: remove every friction point that sits between a buyer and their first "aha" moment.

Step 3: Be everywhere your users are

• Combine SEO, LLM citations, community presence, direct outreach, and building in public.
• No single magic channel in 2026 — distribution density beats channel focus.
• Traffic breakdown: ~30–40% SEO and LLMs, ~30% word of mouth and referrals, ~20% LinkedIn.
• Watermarks and sharing loops on created demos generate organic viral spread.

Common early mistakes

• Chasing perfection and not launching fast enough — earlier launch means faster data, faster decision.
• Obsessing over competition instead of the problem.
• The only advantage a founder has over an incumbent is urgency and speed.