first-50-users

# Your first 50 users > You don't get your first 50 users by posting more. You get them by going where your users *already* discover tools, and, at the start, by doing things that don't scale. **Use this when:** you launched to silence, you're spraying every channel hoping one works, or you're about to buy ads to fix a problem ads can't fix. ## The core idea Every developer audience has an existing **technology-discovery loop**: the specific places they already go to find new tools. Your job isn't to invent demand; it's to position yourself *inside that loop*. And your first cohort is hand-to-hand: the TAB members from `talk-to-users` are your first users. ## Framework: the top of the DREAM funnel (Frankl) - **Discovery**: be where developers look: the communities, newsletters, influencers, and searches your ICP already uses. Metric: unique humans, not pageviews. - **Research**: give the interested dev a next step *before they forget you*: newsletter, Discord, free tier, docs. Developers can sit in Research for months, so sustain the relationship. Then **Evaluation** decides everything (see `know-if-its-working`): can a new dev get value **over a weekend, from docs and Stack Overflow, with no support call?** If not, more traffic just fills a leaky bucket. ## Framework: channels by stage (Czakon) **Pre-PMF (you are here for the first 50):** unscalable, direct, high-touch. - The people who posted about the problem (HN/Reddit/GitHub issues/X), DM them, personally. - You...