Thread by @thisiskp_

Most founders struggle with how to acquire their first 100 beta sign ups for a new idea.

I’ve done it for 2 products in the last few months (one has 1500+ beta sign ups and the other has 500+) without even going on @ProductHunt

Here’s how I did it: 👇🏽

(a thread) 🧵

Start with a waitlist ⚡️

A lot of founders make the mistake of directly unveiling their product to public w/o creating any buzz around the launch

Never open to a vague general audience

Set up a waitlist & let people opt-in so you have a focused audience

Build a viral loop to Twitter 🗣

After people sign up on your waitlist, don’t give instant access

Give them a way to share their excitement on Twitter and bring friends to be bumped up to “priority access” to the beta

This step’s going to show you who’s really serious 👀

Make it easy to share 🤝

I always have pre-composed tweets behind most buttons

It’s the little things - people love editing the copy and just hitting tweet than thinking from scratch

Treat super fans like royalty 😇

The small percentage of super fans who went thru the hoops for you have to be absolutely thanked and recognized

Among your waitlist, these are your most passionate audience

Give them more value, tweet at them, slide into DMs, show love ❤️

Build in public 💡

Let people know what you are building way before you have an MVP

Use a landing page to share your thesis & attract the right users

Make it clean, easy to digest and just high-level

Here are my tips on building effective landing pages:

https://twitter.com/thisiskp_/status/1285550612256628736

Roll out invites in batches 🧵

My playbook is:

⚪️ I share v1 w/ my group @zerotoonemakers and a handful of founder friends I trust

⚪️ I iterate on their feedback & within a week, launch it to super fans on the waitlist

⚪️ The full waitlist

⚪️ My Twitter

⚪️ ProductHunt

Build audience each day 😍

I may not be shipping each day but I’m always sharing the story of what I’m building to get people excited — either in private or public

My default assumption is no one cares about my idea — it keeps me humble & reminds me to share stories

Treat beta seriously 💯

A beta launch is as important as a real public launch

I do my best to build community from the 1st user - listen to them, reply to their emails/tweets, understand how they’re using the product

Not easy but rewarding because it boosts word of mouth ✅

Use one channel effectively 🎯

I share my updates on IndieHackers too but somehow a lot of the users for my projects come from Twitter

LetterDrop.io grew to 505 beta ups & Cuppa is 1600+

Find a channel that works for you & stay focused in the early days

These are some lessons I’ve learned from direct experience. Be aware that these are largely relevant for B2C products.. I’m not an expert on B2B launches 😃

Hope this was helpful!

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Thanks for reading! 🙏