Most people think the “build it and they will come” strategy works. It does not. You can build the best user interface in the world. Dull marketing still leaves you with no audience.
Here is the blueprint for the first 10,000 users. It carries no filler.
Stop Selling Your Product
Spoiler alert: nobody cares about your product. They care about what your product does for them.
Features are boring. Stop talking about your 256-bit encryption.
Transformation is everything. Talk about how your user saves three hours a day.
The Click is King. Content isn’t there to explain every button. It exists solely to get someone to click the link.
The Creator Strategy
Don’t try to be a full-time influencer and a founder at the same time. You’ll be bad at both.
Instead, hire creators on a results-only basis. Use tools like Posted to find people who actually move the needle.
The goal:
Find what’s already viral in your niche.
Copy the format, not the content.
Use every channel (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) simultaneously.
The Math of Scaling
Once you find a message that sticks, stop guessing. Scale with paid ads. It’s a simple equation: CAC < LTV.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is what you pay for one customer. Lifetime value (LTV) is what that customer spends in total. Pay $10 for a customer who spends $50, and the machine makes money. Feed it.
The GitHub “Awesome” Loophole
Do you build for developers, designers, or tech-savvy founders? GitHub hosts code. It also works as a large, high-authority directory.
Thousands of “Awesome Lists” exist, and examples include Awesome-SaaS, Awesome-UI, and Awesome-Security. They work as the modern Yellow Pages for tech. These lists often carry tens of thousands of stars. So they rank at the top of Google when someone searches for “Best tools for X.”
How to find your “Awesomeness”:
Search your niche: Go to GitHub and search
awesome + [your industry]. Making a security app? Search Awesome Security. A dashboard? Awesome UI.The Pull Request (PR): You do not ask for permission. Fork the repository. Add your tool to the README file and keep the formatting identical. Then submit a Pull Request.
Marketplaces matter: Beyond lists, look for GitHub-based marketplaces and community-curated directories.
Why this is a cheat code:
Trust by Association: If a curated list accepts your PR, you’ve just been “vetted” by the community.
Set it and Forget it: Unlike a tweet that dies in 24 hours, a GitHub list is a permanent traffic source.
SEO Juice: These repos are high-authority domains. A link from a large Awesome list lifts your search rankings a lot.
The Reddit “Cheat Code”
Reddit is where startups go to die, usually because they spam links and get banned in ten minutes.
The Rule: Be a human first. Provide value, answer questions, and engage. Only then do you drop the link.
Where to post:
The Big Ones: r/SaaS, r/startups, r/Entrepreneur, r/sideproject.
The Feedback Loops: r/RoastMyStartup, r/design_critiques.
The Niche Wins: r/productivity, r/InternetIsBeautiful, r/LadyBusiness.
Pro Tip: For the easiest wins, try r/AlphaandBetausers or r/MadeThis. Those members actually want to see what you build.
Here’s the full list:
Don’t just spam links. Be helpful, be real, engage and then pitch the product. Provide value.
The Bottom Line
Stop over-complicating it. Find the viral message. Hire people who make better video than you. And treat people well on Reddit.
The first 10k users aren’t found in a lab. They’re found in the comments section.
Related reading: The MrBeast Blueprint: YouTube Growth Tactics and Free LinkedIn Comment Tool (I Almost Paid $250).
