How to Find Your First 10 Real Fans (Even If You’re Starting From Zero)

Hey, reader!

This week was full of lessons. What did you learn? This week was a good reminder to go a little deeper when building my newsletter. That means posting more, focusing on specific content, replying to comments, and DMing those people to see what resonates with them the most.

Today’s potion of the week includes:

• Crickets and doubt? You’re not failing — you’re fishing in the wrong pond. Traction starts in unexpected places, not on big platforms.

• Ten real fans beat a thousand followers. Early validation is about signal, not scale. Your spark isn’t about going viral — it’s about finding signal.

• Avoiding the common mistakes that are early-stage traps that can kill momentum. What works at scale fails at zero.

Newsletter Navigation

• The Makers Cabinet

• Dose of Growth

• Potion of the Week

• Closing Thoughts

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The Makers Cabinet

Wyatt Feaster is whipping up the fix for the UI/UX and QA process. Enter Ralee, a solution to capture bugs and design issues in seconds. Communicate the fixes clearly to your developers — all in one place — to designs that are pixel-perfect implementations, fast. Watch the demo video here.

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Dose of Growth

If you’re looking to build your customer base, ensure you’re fishing in the right place. If you find that you aren’t, move to the next place and keep looking. Failure is not an option.

Potion of the Week

Crickets and Doubt

You launched, posted everywhere, dropped on Product Hunt… And all you got was the sound of crickets and your own doubt echoing back. It’s not that your idea sucks. You’re just fishing in the wrong pond. This week’s Potion uncorks a different way to think about finding your first fans.

The 0 to 1 Mindset

It's crushing when you're hyped for an idea and it isn't taking its first breath of life, but what makes a great entrepreneur is their mindset to continuously learn from failures and solve problems. Those early moments when you're fighting to land initial customers who rave about your badass idea are critical, so let's talk about real, tangible steps to get you traction.

What You’re Actually Validating

The acquisition from 0 to 100 is where you’re validating:

• If your business is an overall product-market fit.

• If you’re fishing in the right place to find the right customers.

• If you need to make adjustments to your product.

The people who love your product might not be where you think they are. The early signal often comes from a corner of the internet you hadn’t planned for. The moment you see a tiny spark, even if it’s 10 people, then dig in and smash through the wall like the Kool-Aid man announcing your value to confirm if these people are your fit.

Be quick, inspect those sparks, and keep moving. This is the perfect time to quickly validate ideas, make changes, and gather feedback to gain momentum. Momentum isn’t just making money. It’s the reassurance.

What Most People Get Wrong

Avoid the noise as an early entrepreneur. Don’t get caught up in these common “solutions”:

• Mass Outreach: Bland message blasts to everyone and their mother, which usually get ignored. It’s not personal, authentic, and most of us don’t have a massive audience to begin with to make the pool large enough to capture the right people.

• Over-complication: Absorbing all the frameworks in the world leads to feeling more overwhelmed than a first-time parent (not that I would know). Everyone wants a hack, but it’s usually the simplest, most uncomfortable steps that move the needle.

• Early Paid Ads: Lighting your cash on fire without a clear understanding of your customers is a waste of time. Paid ads only work after you’ve proven who your audience is and what problems you’re solving. Don’t pay to test assumptions.

• Platform Bias: Just because your favorite founder got traction on Product Hunt or Y Combinator doesn’t mean you will. Your users might not even be there. Fishing in the wrong pond with the right bait still gets you nothing.

• Phantom Incentives: Tools like affiliate links sound smart, but without clear motivation or momentum, nobody uses them. Don’t rely on passive levers until you’ve earned active engagement.

A Better Potion

Take actionable steps that won’t scar you for life (but will still be uncomfortable). Matt McGarry and Alex Hormozi use similar methods to the steps below, and the best part? You don’t need ads, a funnel, or a massive audience to start.

1. Build Your Initial Lists: Go through your social media, email, and phone contacts. Write down every person you know — even if it feels awkward. Do it anyway. The success you’re chasing is worth a few cringy DMs.

2. Choose One Platform: Don’t try to be everywhere. Pick the platform where your people already hang out. Maybe it’s LinkedIn, maybe it’s a Slack group or even a private Discord. Start where conversations are already happening.

3. Personalize Your Message: Skip the generic stuff and start each message with something genuine — share an observation, give a meaningful compliment, or mention a shared experience. Your first supporters will come from real connections.

4. Warm Up Responses: Don’t pitch immediately. Ask for their thoughts. If you show up like a human, not a pitch machine, people are way more likely to help you (even if it’s just a reply or a “this is interesting”).

5. Offer Something Real (and Free): When people start showing interest, give them something valuable that’s aligned with their problem. Maybe it’s a free trial, or a 15-minute jam session where you ask about their pain points. You’ll learn more in these raw conversations than any survey can give you.

6. Look for Communities, Not Just Individuals: Some of your best early traction will come from unexpected communities. Find those places where your ideal customer already gathers and participates, even if it’s a small Discord or a local Slack group. That’s where the signal lives.

7. Work Up the Chain: Don’t just talk to users — reach out to the people they trust. The program director, the mentor, the Slack admin. Sometimes the fastest way to spread the word is to win over the person with built-in reach.

8. Gradually Transition to Paid: Once you’re getting real feedback and validation, shift from free to paid. Start by helping. End by charging. But only after you’ve earned the right.

How I Got Product Potion Off the Ground

When I started this newsletter, I didn’t have a growth hack — I had an idea (honestly, I had a few too many), a LinkedIn, and a few people I knew would get it.

So I repackaged what I was already thinking about into Product Potion.

I did the following:

• Sent a “life update” email from my personal Gmail to friends and family.

• Messaged my old Design Your Life Club audience on Substack.

• Reached out to folks in my Write, Grow, Sell cohort.

• Asked people to reshare posts on LinkedIn.

The initial response wasn’t massive, but the early feedback gave me what I needed to build momentum to create a feedback loop, which I’m still refining as the audience grows.

It’s scrappy, it’s uncomfortable, and most of it happens in the DMs or comments section, not from ads or magic, but from showing up, asking, and listening.

The Final Stir

Have you found people who care about what you’re building? Take those tiny signals — the early “hey, this is cool” — is the thread you need to pull.

Ask yourself:

• Have I truly found initial fit, not just interest, but real curiosity?

• Have I tapped every corner of my network, or am I still waiting for people to find me?

Yes, it’s tedious. Yes, it’s messy. But those early, awkward conversations are where the real momentum lives.

The magic isn’t in fancy frameworks. It’s in doing the stupid, simple things — well, and often.

Here’s your parting question:

→ When did you feel your first spark of product-market fit, or are you still searching for it? Reply and tell me. Or reflect and keep pulling the thread.

Closing Thoughts

Let’s brew something great! If you’re building a product and want to make your users fall in love with it, I’d love to help.

Book a free Discovery Call — We’ll talk through what’s working, what’s not, and how to turn user experience into serious growth.

Catch you next week 👋

— Dana

P.S. I take replies seriously. If there’s something you’re stuck on: UX, growth, or clarity — I might turn it into a full-blown breakdown (free consulting? Kinda).