Show HN: Firstusers.io – Find out how companies got their first users

https://www.firstusers.io/

by LHardi • 9 years ago

33 12 9 years ago

LHardi6• 9 years ago

Hi, I built this site to show how companies (mostly in tech) got their first users / how they got viral. Hopefully, people will get some new inspirations on how to get new users based on what have been done in the past :).

bburns_km• 9 years ago

This is some great information - however clicking Back after reading some info scrolls the homepage back to the top. The categorization into separate categories is probably not too useful at this point - it might make more sense to just have a single page with all the companies and their strategies listed.

Anyway, great idea for a site - maybe you could add a post to Twitter or Facebook button to help spread it around.

LHardi6• 9 years ago

Thanks! I will try to trim down the unnecessary categorization. I have also added a share button as you have mentioned (only on Twitter to start with) :). I will definitely add more share buttons.

rkcf• 9 years ago

I like the clean uncluttered design of the site. You could find some founders to interview a la https://www.indiehackers.com/ to get more detailed information on the early stages of a startup.

It would be nice if the site worked without javascript as well.

LHardi6• 9 years ago

Thank you! And thanks for the link to indiehackers. I could find some company informations there that I could not find before (e.g. Sidekiq and Shogun). I will definitely add more content very soon.

Will try to find workaround regarding the javascript too.

mygo• 9 years ago

I wish it was more detailed than a few sentences for a company. If keeping it short is going to be your thing, at least link out to references that are more in depth, such as previous interviews, etc.

LHardi6• 9 years ago

True, some of the explanations are too short. I will add more details into some of the company pages. Thank you for your suggestion!

gh1• 9 years ago

I love it, especially how you summarized the key points in one or two sentences instead of going into lengthy stories.

It seems the key strategies can be listed as follows:

1. Great video which demonstrates a good knowledge of the community (Dropbox)

2. Viral (aka sharing) features built in (Instagram)

3. Leveraging existing userbase (Instagram, Product Hunt)

4. Exclusivity (aka invite only) (Spotify, Facebook, Quora)

5. Reaching out to competitor's users and doing a better job than the competitor (AirBNB)

6. Getting the tougher side of the marketplace on board first (Tinder)

7. Offering rewards for signing up etc. (Paypal, Yelp)

8. Starting with a premium service first to deliver best user experience, leading to word of mouth (Uber)

9. Contests (Youtube)

10. Influencer outreach (Etsy)

11. Seeding site with good content (Quora)

Do continue with this site. I find it to be a very valuable resource.

LHardi6• 9 years ago

I'm glad that you like the content :) Thank you! I will add more content soon since I've gotten more resources from the comments too.

fiatjaf• 9 years ago

All the examples are from network-effected services.

egfx• 9 years ago

Some great content on the site but the layout is buggy on crappy old Android phones with small screens.

LHardi6• 9 years ago

That's what I noticed too. I'm trying to figure out a way to fix the layout on mobile devices. Thanks egfx :)

Show HN: Firstusers.io – Find out how companies got their first users

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