In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner Max Kolysh draws on dozens of YC founder stories to explain how to identify the right buyers, start conversations, and turn them into your first customers.

I know its going to stop being so effective at at some point, but so far so good. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Digital media (email/LinkedIn/Insta/X/etc.) moves people from 1 to 2.

Moving people from 2 to 3 ain't gonna happen with "awareness." You have to get in front of someone and close the sale. There is a lot of stuff in the store that I think is good and fairly priced. But I don't buy the entire store every time I visit. But, if someone in the store shows me one item and gives me a good story, pretty good chance I'm walking out with it. One item out of thousands. Why? Because a human moved me from 2 to 3.

Water doesn't boil at 100° - you have to add a little bit more energy to initiate a phase change. No different.

I like the advice that the first three customers almost always come from personal network, and then 4-10 will come from warm network, and through techniques that don't scale.

It was kind of spot on, as I do have my first pledged customer after showing them the proof of concept demo. They keep asking when it's going to be ready.

And my second target was the person who runs the co-working space I used to be at. Which are lining up with the claim that the first three will be in my personal network!

Also, TIL about Startup School, and there's a whole bunch of videos to absorb and I subscribed to their YouTube channel!