Founder outreach

Founder Outreach

Before any channel scales, founders get their first users one message at a time. Founder-to-user outreach converts at 10–30% when it's specific and honest — and 0% when it smells like a template. This skill builds the target list, the messages, and the sprint.

Context

Read product-context.md if present. Otherwise ask for:

1. Product name, one-liner, and live URL
2. Who exactly it's for (role, situation — not "everyone who...")
3. Where those people already talk (subreddits, Discords, X circles, forums)
4. What the user can offer early users (free access, founding price, direct support)
5. How many users they have now

Process

1. Build the 50-person list

Quality beats volume. Find 50 people showing the problem, not the demographic:

• Search complaints, not keywords — X/Reddit/HN searches for the pain phrased as users phrase it ("spent all weekend making a launch video", "why is X so tedious")
• Recent > relevant — someone who posted the pain this month beats a perfect-fit profile from 2024
• Watering holes — active members of 2–3 communities where the problem comes up; note the thread you found them in
• Competitors' complainers — people publicly frustrated with the alternative

Track in a simple table: name, platform, link to the post that qualified them, the pain in their words, status.

2. Write the message (one per person, one skeleton)

The skeleton that gets replies:

[Reference their specific post/situation — one sentence, proves you read it]
[One sentence: what you built and the exact overlap with their pain]
[The ask: try it / 15-min chat / feedback — pick ONE, make it small]
[Disarm: no pressure line + who you are in 5 words]

Rules:

• First sentence is about them, never about you
• No links in the first DM on platforms where that reads as spam (X, Reddit DMs) — offer the link once they reply
• Cold email can include the link; subject line = the pain, not the product name
• 60–90 words max. If it scrolls, it's an ad.

3. Run the 2-week sprint

• 5 messages/day, personalized — 25/week, 50 total
• Log every send; follow up once after 3–4 days ("no worries if not — curious what you're using instead?") — the follow-up often outperforms the opener
• Reply-rate math: 50 sends → expect 10–15 replies → 5–8 real conversations → 3–5 activated users. If replies < 10%, the message is generic or the list is wrong — fix before sending more.

4. Convert conversations, not clicks

• Whoever replies gets white-glove onboarding: offer to set them up live, or send a 60-second personalized walkthrough of their use case
• Ask every activated user two questions: "what almost stopped you from trying it?" and "who else do you know with this problem?" — the second one restocks the list
• Every objection goes in a doc; three repeats of the same objection = a landing-page fix, not a sales problem

Output

1. Target list — 50 qualified people with source links and pain quotes, in a tracking table
2. Message skeleton + 5 fully personalized examples written for real people from the list
3. Follow-up message — one, ready to send
4. 2-week sprint calendar — daily send/reply-sweep schedule with reply-rate checkpoints
5. Objection log template — capture what's blocking conversions and what it means for the product

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Outreach works best with something to show. SoloMax turns your product URL into a short launch video — drop it into the conversation when they reply, instead of a wall of text.