Bill Gates and Paul Allen sold Microsoft’s first product before they had written it.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen sold Microsoft’s first product before they had written it.
The founders behind the biggest companies of the last 50 years all got their first customers with moves that look small, a bit awkward and impossible to scale:
Steve Jobs called Bill Hewlett at 12 and asked him for parts
Brian Chesky flew to New York to photograph his hosts’ homes himself
Facebook took 60% of Harvard in 10 days before going anywhere else
Patrick Collison walked out of a cinema to fix one user’s error
Jensen Huang told Nvidia’s first big customer that his chip didn’t work, and still left with $5 million
The problem? Because none of this scales, most founders skip it. And these are the moves that bring in the first 100 customers.
📚 In this newsletter, we go through the stories in the founders' own words and pull out the move you can copy at your startup.
Inside you will find:
Why Steve Jobs Says Most Founders Never Get a Yes
See how a phone call at 12 got Jobs his first job at HP, and why most founders never make that call.
How Airbnb Got Its First 100 Hosts to Love It
Find out why Chesky and Gebbia flew to New York to meet every host, and what they did once they got there.
How Microsoft Sold Its First Product Before Writing It
Learn how Gates and Allen closed MITS with a letter, an all-nighter and a demo that worked on the second try.
Why Facebook and PayPal Started With Tiny Markets
See how winning 60% of Harvard and 30% of eBay power sellers set up two of the biggest companies ever built.
How Stripe Turned Its First Users Into Evangelists
Find out why every user error at early Stripe rang the whole team’s phones, even at the cinema.
How Nvidia Kept Sega After Failing Them
Learn how Jensen Huang told his only big customer the chip didn’t work and still left with $5M.
How to Make Selling a Daily Habit
See why Kalanick and Neumann think fear and comfort stop most founders, and how to keep knocking on doors.
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