How to Get Your First 10k Users (Without Being a Spam Bot)
No fluff blueprint for the first 10,000 users.
Most people think the “build it and they will come” strategy actually works. It doesn’t. You can have the slickest UI in the world, but if your marketing is a snooze-fest, you’re just shouting into a void.
Here is the blueprint for the first 10,000 users. No fluff!
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.
Leverage 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.
If it costs you $10 to get a customer (CAC) and they spend $50 over their lifetime (LTV), you’ve just found a money machine. Feed it.
The GitHub “Awesome” Loophole
If you’re building for developers, designers, or tech-savvy founders, GitHub isn’t just for hosting code—it’s a massive, high-authority directory.
There are thousands of “Awesome Lists” (repos like Awesome-SaaS, Awesome-UI, or Awesome-Security) that act as the modern Yellow Pages for tech. These lists often have tens of thousands of stars, meaning they show up at the top of Google whenever 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 don’t ask for permission. You fork the repository, add your tool to the README file (keep the formatting identical!), and 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 massive Awesome list is worth its weight in gold for your search rankings.
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: If you’re looking for low-hanging fruit, try r/AlphaandBetausers or r/MadeThis. They actually want to see what you’re building.
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 are better at video than you, and don’t be a jerk on Reddit.
The first 10k users aren’t found in a lab; they’re found in the comments section.