New Playbook: Reddit is a Research Goldmine, Not a Billboard

Y Combinator partner Michael Seibel advises founders to get their first users from their personal network, not through cold outreach. He suggests finding people who are willing to use an early, unfinished product and are eager to pay to have their problem solved. YC's ethos has long been to launch a simple, even bad, product quickly to start the feedback loop. The goal isn't a perfect product; it's to deliver some value to an initial user and iterate. This initial version can be as simple as a landing page and a spreadsheet. For outreach beyond your network, personalized cold emails have an average open rate of around 21%, which can increase to over 30% with personalization. The goal is to book a call by focusing on the prospect's problems, often categorized as losses in Time, Image, or Money (TIM). A multi-channel strategy combining LinkedIn engagement, email, and even cold calls can be effective. Warming up leads by engaging with their content on social platforms before a call can significantly increase positive interactions. Most deals require multiple touchpoints, so a follow-up strategy is critical. When conducting user discovery calls, a structured approach is to present a "menu of pain"—the top three problems your target users face—and ask which one resonates most. This establishes credibility and gets to the root of their problem faster than open-ended questions alone. YC General Partner Ankit Gupta recommends charging early adopters from the start, not for revenue but for better feedback. Paying customers provide sharper, more honest feedback than free users, helping to validate the product's value and steer its evolution. The founders of Airbnb exemplified the "do things that don't scale" mantra by initially going to their hosts' apartments to take professional photos themselves. This unscalable action helped them improve listings, increase conversions, and have invaluable conversations with their earliest customers.