Robert Ta built Clarity by approaching people in bookstore self-help aisles and asking qualifying questions. He got a 30% hit rate and emphasizes talking to potential users directly instead of perfecting a product alone.
About 30%.
How do you get your first users and customers? As a startup founder for Clarity, I thought about our ideal customer profile. It's for people that feel like my journaling is all over the place. I need something in between therapy sessions to make sure I'm on track. These personality tests and quizzes, they're all static, but I'm dynamic. I don't fit in a box. So those are the pain points. Clarity is the solution to those pain points. So for me, I think about where do these people hang out? Maybe what subreddits do they follow, what authors do they read? And I thought, oh, they probably go to bookstores. People that read are more likely to identify with self improvement, self growth, personal growth. I go to bookstores, I go to the self help aisle and I shamelessly just ask people some qualifying questions. So I ask them, hey, are you in the personal growth? Have you been to therapy? Would you identify as mindful? Do you journal? Have you taken personality tests? If so, I have this app that I'm building to help people become their best self. Would you be interested in doing a user research interview with me and I'll buy you a book? And my hit rate is probably 30% is so important to get feedback and shorten the feedback loop from your ideal customer profile. Even if it takes a bunch of no's and feeling shame and embarrassment, whatever, just get over it. That's how I got my first few customers and users and hopefully that helps you.
