Why PMs Should Study Early User Acquisition
Here's something that doesn't get talked about enough in PM circles: finding your first users is fundamentally different from scaling to your millionth. The growth strategies that work at scale (SEO, paid ads, viral loops) are almost useless when you're starting from zero.
Lenny Rachitsky (former Airbnb PM, now runs the most popular product newsletter) spent months researching this question. He interviewed founders, dug through archives, and compiled first-hand accounts of how essentially every major consumer app got their first 1,000 users.
What he found surprised me: there are really only 7 strategies that work. That's it. Whether you're building the next Tinder, Uber, or Notion, you're picking from the same short menu. The difference is in execution.
Why does this matter for you as a PM? Because at some point, you'll launch something new. A new feature, a new product line, an internal tool that needs adoption. Understanding these strategies will help you advise founders, plan launches, and avoid the trap of thinking "we'll just do marketing later."
- Only 7 strategies account for how consumer apps find their first users
- Most successful startups relied on just ONE strategy, not a mix
- The method that gets your first 1,000 users is different from what gets you to 10,000
- "Doing things that don't scale" is actually the playbook, not a temporary hack
- Your personal network is more powerful than you think
The 7 Strategies That Actually Work
Lenny analyzed over 100 consumer companies and found that 99% of B2C startups' early growth came from these seven strategies. Think of this as a menu: your job is to pick one or two, commit fully, and iterate until something works.
1 Friends, Colleagues & Your Network
What it is: Reaching out personally to people you already know. This was a large driver of early growth for about 20% of successful startups.
Why it works: Your network trusts you. They'll try your product as a favor, give honest feedback, and refer others if they like it. It's the fastest, cheapest way to get your first users.
PM takeaway: Before planning a fancy launch, map your team's network. Who do you know that fits your target user? Can each team member personally onboard 10 users?
2 Go Where Users Are (Offline)
What it is: Street teams, events, campuses, conferences. Physically showing up where your target users gather.
Why it works: You can demo the product, answer questions immediately, and create memorable moments. Plus, people are more likely to try something when a human is standing in front of them.
PM takeaway: Where do your target users physically gather? Conferences, meetups, college campuses, coworking spaces? Can you show up there?
3 Go Where Users Are (Online)
What it is: Communities, forums, Reddit, Discord servers, Facebook groups, niche websites. Finding the digital watering holes where your users already hang out.
Why it works: Your target users have already self-selected into these communities. You're fishing where the fish are, instead of hoping they'll find you.
PM takeaway: Map 5-10 online communities where your target users hang out. Join them. Understand the culture before promoting anything. Value first, pitch second.
4 Invite Influencers
What it is: Find people with existing audiences who match your target demographic. Give them early access, special treatment, and reasons to share.
Why it works: One influential person can bring hundreds or thousands of their followers. It's leverage—you're borrowing someone else's trust and reach.
PM takeaway: Who are the 10 most influential people in your target space? What would make them excited to try your product? How can you make them look good?
5 Get Press & Media Coverage
What it is: Getting written about in publications, blogs, podcasts, or news outlets that your target users read.
Why it works: Press provides credibility and reach simultaneously. Being featured in a respected publication signals "this is worth paying attention to."
PM takeaway: Press requires a story, not just a product. What's the narrative angle? What makes this newsworthy? Can you tie into a current event or trend?
6 Create FOMO & Exclusivity
What it is: Waitlists, invite-only access, limited availability. Making your product feel scarce and desirable.
Why it works: Scarcity creates demand. If everyone can have it, it's not special. If you need an invite, suddenly people want in.
PM takeaway: This works best when there's genuine value worth waiting for. Fake scarcity backfires. But if your product genuinely benefits from curated early users, lean into it.
7 Get Physical Placement
What it is: Flyers, stickers, signs, posters. Physical artifacts in the real world that drive awareness.
Why it works: Physical presence creates legitimacy and repeated exposure. Seeing a sticker on a laptop or a flyer in a coffee shop normalizes the product.
PM takeaway: Sometimes the lowest-tech solution is the right one. Where could physical placement create awareness for your product?
How to Apply This to Your Work
If you're launching a new product or feature:
- Pick ONE strategy to start, not all seven. Lenny found most successful startups relied on a single channel.
- Map your team's network—can each person personally onboard 5-10 users?
- Identify where your target users already gather (online communities, events, forums)
- Define what "success" looks like for your first 100 users before thinking about 1,000
- Set a timeline: if this strategy isn't working in 2-4 weeks, move to the next one on the list
If you're advising a founder or early-stage team:
- Ask: "What are you doing that doesn't scale?" If they can't answer, they're probably not doing enough
- Challenge assumptions about paid marketing—it rarely works at the 0-1,000 stage
- Share specific examples from this article to illustrate what "going direct" looks like
- Help them identify their "Tinder sorority moment"—where is the concentrated cluster of ideal users?
- Remind them: the strategy that gets first 1,000 users is different from what scales to 1 million
If you're working on internal product adoption:
- The same principles apply to internal tools. Find your early adopters manually.
- Identify the "influencers" in your org—who do others follow? Get them on board first.
- Create exclusivity: "We're piloting with top performers" beats "Everyone has to use this."
- Go where users are: Slack channels, all-hands meetings, lunch-and-learns
- Personal onboarding scales better than documentation for the first 50 users
The meta-lesson: There's no magic to early user acquisition. It's work. Manual, unscalable, sometimes uncomfortable work. The founders who succeed are the ones willing to hand out flyers, send cold emails, crash parties, and personally onboard every single early user. Embrace the grind.
Understanding This from First Principles
Let me break down why these strategies work and when to use each one.
Why does "doing things that don't scale" work?
At the early stage, your biggest risks are: (1) building something nobody wants, and (2) not learning fast enough to pivot.
Unscalable tactics—like personally onboarding users—solve both problems. You get direct feedback, see exactly where users struggle, and build relationships that turn customers into evangelists.
Scalable tactics (ads, SEO, content marketing) assume you've already figured out product-market fit. They amplify what's working. But if you haven't found fit yet, you're just burning money to acquire users who won't stick around.
How do you choose which strategy to try first?
Match the strategy to your product and strengths:
- Network effects matter? Start with concentrated communities (like Tinder at USC)
- Visual product? Go after influencers who create content (like Instagram with photographers)
- Professional tool? Leverage your team's industry network (like Yelp with PayPal alumni)
- Local service? Physical presence and street teams (like Uber at Caltrain)
- Niche audience? Find their online communities (like Netflix in DVD forums)
Start with what you can do well. If your team has strong networks, use them. If you're great at content, build a community first. Play to your strengths while you figure out the product.
When do you switch from unscalable to scalable?
The rough answer: when you have evidence of product-market fit. Signs include:
- Users are coming back without prompting
- Word-of-mouth is starting to work (users refer friends)
- You've found a repeatable acquisition motion
- Retention curves flatten (people stick around)
At that point, you've proven the product works. Now you can pour fuel (money, automation, scale) on the fire. But scaling before fit is how startups burn through funding with nothing to show for it.
Why do most startups find success from just one channel?
Because focus wins. Trying all seven strategies means doing each one poorly.
Early-stage teams have limited time, money, and people. Spreading across multiple channels dilutes everything. Better to go deep on one approach, learn what works, iterate, and only move on if it's clearly failing.
The exception: Sometimes strategies complement each other. Press + community can work together. Influencers + exclusivity reinforce each other. But start with one, prove it, then layer.
Read the Original Article
"How to kickstart and scale a consumer business: Find your early adopters"
By Lenny Rachitsky
Part of his series on scaling consumer businesses
This rewrite is my interpretation for Product Managers. Lenny's original includes more examples, data, and a companion piece on how the biggest apps got their first 1,000 users. Highly recommend subscribing to his newsletter.