How today's fastest growing B2B businesses found their first ten customers

companies grow primarily through four possible Growth Engines:

1) Performance marketing: FB, AdWords, TV, etc.2) Virality: Word-of-mouth, referrals, inviting friends, etc.3) Content: SEO, shareable videos, or newsletters, etc.4) Sales: Outbound (and inbound) salespeople

almost every B2B business BOTH hits up their personal network AND heads to the places their potential customers were spending time. The question isn’t which of these two routes to pursue, but instead how far your own network will take you before you move on.

Tapping your personal network is even more important if you need to “sell” your product (i.e. not going bottom-up), likely because early customers need to have a reason to trust you.

In the early days of Figma, we talked with practically every designer we knew. In search of more feedback, we turned to Twitter which I realized we could use to determine the most influential designers. After getting the data, I further filtered the list to people that were personally inspirational to me. Then I cold emailed / found introductions t... See more

Only three sourcing strategies account for every B2B company’s very early growth