Michael Seibel on which customers to go after first

As former CEO of Y Combinator Michael Seibel puts it in the clip below: you should go after the easy ones!

“A lot of founders are confused by this question… For some reason, a lot of people’s first instinct is to go after the hardest customers first almost as if it’s a proof: ‘If I can get this impossible person to use something, then I know that I’ve made something good.’”

However, Michael recommends a different approach:

“It’s an MVP—you know you’ve made something bad. That’s the definition of an MVP: it’s bad. So the real question is: ‘how do you find people who are willing to use a bad product?’… They have to be the most desperate. And so a lot of times when I talk to founders, I really push them toward: ‘who are the most desperate customers and how do you talk to them first?’”

As he points out:

“If you’re trying to sell a simple piece of software to someone for $1,000 per month and you’re engaged in a six month conversation with the company, that’s not a desperate company. Move on… If you’re trying to get impressive customers who aren’t desperate, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

The number one thing he’ll often ask founders is: “Who is going to go out of business if they don’t use you?”

Those are the people you want to talk to first.

Full video: Y Combinator “Michael Seibel - Building Product” (Sep 2018)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Michael Seibel insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Michael Seibel"