Finding Our First Pilot Customers

The question is, how do I get my first pilot customers?

I need five pilot customers in order to validate this to my investors. Where do I get them?

The natural temptation is to think: I need to make as many people aware of me as possible. If I can cast a really broad net, surely inside of that net there will be five pilot customers.

There's a problem with this thinking, which is that we're at such an early stage. The parameters of the product haven't really been set. It doesn't really work all that well.

We actually don't need a broad base of customers.

We need five very specific customers.

We need the five right customers that are going to be pilot partners with us.

And so when we go out and cast a really broad net, what we're actually doing is creating noise for ourselves. Every lead that comes in is a lead that we have to sift through and we'll get more and more confused.

We're better off remaining laser focused, thinking very honestly and critically about what does the right partner for me look like? What must be true about a company or a person to make them a great pilot customer?

Then we create a really short list of companies that meet these criteria.

From there, the task is just to go out and do whatever work is necessary to get their attention. We pursue them one at a time and we work to close each one.

This is a much more straightforward sales process than shouting into a room and seeing who raises their hand. It creates a higher probability of success for us, and it ensures that all of our time, resources, energy, money are spent directly driving the desired outcome with as little waste as possible.