Describe Your Idea, See Who Is Already Saying It

FirstCustomer is for founders with an idea and no customers yet. You describe the problem in one sentence. We read public posts on Reddit and Hacker News and return the people describing that problem in their own words, each with a quote and a score from 0 to 100.

This article explains how that works, how to read a result, and what to do in the first hour after you get one. We want it to be useful whether or not you ever use the product. You can run the same method by hand.

Why we started from a sentence

The first customer is hard to find because there is no list of them. A founder with a new idea has no mailing list, no network in the field and no budget for ads. What they do have is a sentence: the problem, in plain words.

Somewhere online, people are already writing that problem down. They write it when they are stuck, in a community where other people can answer. That is a better starting point than a persona, because the person is real, the problem is current and the words are theirs. We wrote more about this approach in what 494 founder posts actually say.

So we built a way to go from a sentence to the people writing it.

What you get back

For each idea you describe, FirstCustomer returns a ranked list. Each item has three parts.

1. A person's own words. A short verbatim quote from their public post. If we cannot show you a quote, the item does not rank high.
2. A score from 0 to 100. It tells you how strong the signal is.
3. A link to the original post. So you can read the whole thing and check it.

You read the list, pick the people who look like the right ones, and write to them yourself. The first message is yours, in your own words. We find and rank. We do not send anything.

The five factors behind the score

The score is built from five factors. Knowing them lets you read a result without trusting a number blindly.

| Factor | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Pain | Is this a real problem, or a passing remark? |
| Cost today | What is it costing the person now, in time, money or stress? |
| Willingness to pay | Is there evidence the person already spends money on this? |
| Fit | How closely does the post match the idea you described? |
| Reachability | Can you actually contact this person? |

Each factor looks at what the person wrote, not at what they might say if asked. That is the same discipline as in how to tell who will actually pay: read for behaviour, not opinion.

A high score means the quote shows several of these at once. A middle score usually means one factor is strong and another is missing. That is fine. A middle score with a clear pain and no sign of spending is a good candidate for a conversation about the past, not a sales message.

How to read a result

When you open a list, work through each item with the same short routine.

Read the quote first

Before you look at the score, read the words. Ask yourself whether you can picture the person. A good quote has a situation, a feeling and often a detail.

Check the date

A person who posted about the pain this month is easier to talk to than a persona is to guess at. A post from long ago is less useful, because the person may have solved the problem or moved on.

Look at which factor is carrying the score

If pain is high and cost is low, the person is annoyed but not paying. If cost is high and pain is moderate, they already spend money and may be open to a better option. The mix tells you what kind of conversation to have.

Open the original post

Read the comments. Look for prices, tool names and what other people say. Sometimes the comments tell you more than the post.

Decide in one line

Write one line for each person: talk to, watch, or skip. Keep it short. The point of the list is to get you to a decision, not to build a spreadsheet.

Your first hour with a list

Here is a plan you can follow.

1. Minutes 0 to 10. Read all the quotes. Do not look at scores yet. Mark the five that sound most like the problem you described.
2. Minutes 10 to 20. Open the five posts. Note the date, the place and anything said about cost.
3. Minutes 20 to 40. Pick the two best. Write one message each. Quote a short phrase from their post, give one useful thing, and ask a single question about the last time the problem happened.
4. Minutes 40 to 50. Read the messages aloud. Remove anything that sounds like a pitch.
5. Minutes 50 to 60. Send them. Write down what you sent and why.

The aim is two real conversations started within an hour. That is more useful than a long list you have not acted on. For the shape of a good first message, we keep coming back to a simple rule: give something before you ask for something.

What it will not do

We want to be clear about the limits.

• It does not send messages. The first contact is yours.
• It does not guarantee a customer. It gives you people who are describing the problem. Whether they buy is a conversation you have to have.
• It reads public posts only. It does not read private groups or direct messages.
• It cannot tell you your idea is good. It can show you whether people are talking about the problem, and in what words.

If the list is empty or the quotes do not match your idea, that is useful. It may mean the problem is described differently from how you described it, or that few people are talking about it yet. Both are worth knowing before you build.

Questions people ask

Is this just a lead list? No. The output is a ranking with the quote that earned each score, for a human to read before writing a single message.

Where does the data come from? Public posts on Reddit and Hacker News.

Why a score at all? A score helps you decide where to look first. It is not a verdict. Read the quote before you trust the number.

What should I write in the first message? Something from their own post, something useful, and one question about the past.

The takeaway

A person who posted about the pain this month is easier to talk to than a persona is to guess at. FirstCustomer turns a sentence into a ranked list of those people, each with a quote and a score from 0 to 100, built from five factors: pain, cost today, willingness to pay, fit and reachability. Read the quote, check the date, see which factor carries the score, and start two conversations in the first hour.

Try it

Describe your idea in one sentence and see who is already saying it. Start at firstcustomer.net.