It’s critical to start with the right set of early customers to kick off all the self-reinforcing growth cycles we’ve discussed above. You have to start by knowing who your best early customers will be — for productivity/collaboration companies that’s often knowledge workers on remote and distributed teams, and often engineers.

Something magical happens when you create a business for a customer base you intrinsically understand! Treating yourself as your first customer can save you marketing costs, make sure you start with a solid product offering, and much more. Creating a solution to a problem without worrying about how you’re going to sell and market it can allow you... See more