Notion and Granola Found Users in Niche Communities
Case studies of Notion and Granola reveal a strategy of embedding in niche communities to find their first users. Notion's AI Q&A team identified early adopters by observing where users struggled most, while AI notetaker Granola found high-signal users by participating in founder-operator communities. The shared lesson is that the first ten users are often those already attempting to solve the problem on their own.
- YC Partner Michael Seibel recommends sourcing your first users from your personal network, focusing on individuals who are so eager to solve the problem that they are willing to work with an early-stage, imperfect product. He suggests using four to five qualifying questions to gauge how intensely a person experiences the problem to identify the most valuable prospects. - An effective strategy for finding users before you have a product is to engage in niche online communities on platforms like Reddit, Discord, or specific forums where your target audience already discusses their problems. The key is to participate authentically in conversations to understand user needs before introducing your solution. - Y Combinator's general advice is to "do things that don't scale" to acquire your first users. This involves manual, hands-on efforts to personally recruit and onboard users, which provides invaluable direct feedback for product development, exemplified by Airbnb's founders initially photographing hosts' apartments themselves. - For cold outreach, YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein suggests a structured email that is personalized, clearly states the value proposition, and ends with a low-friction call to action, like asking for a chance to send a pitch deck rather than requesting a meeting. A follow-up strategy sharing progress or updates can increase response rates. - YC General Partner Ankit Gupta advises charging early adopters from the beginning. The primary goal is not revenue but to attract serious users who provide higher-quality, more direct feedback because they have a financial stake in the product's success. - Before starting outreach, clearly formulate hypotheses about who your customers are and what problems they face. The customer discovery process, as outlined by Steve Blank, involves methodically testing these assumptions through interviews to ensure you're building a product for a real, validated need. - During user interviews, ask open-ended questions about past behaviors, such as "Tell me about the last time you..." instead of asking for opinions on your idea. This approach helps uncover genuine pain points and emotional responses, which are strong indicators of a problem worth solving. - When you begin to find users, it's important to differentiate between those who provide constructive feedback and "hijacker" users who can take up significant support time and pull the product roadmap in the wrong direction. Michael Seibel advises against letting these users control the product's direction.
