Getting Your First SaaS Customers: How I Found Paying Users for Remotefitness

Getting your first SaaS customers often takes personal contact: people you know, people you write to directly and people in the communities your buyers use. This guide covers channels and next steps when you have a product but no paying customers.

[PLACEHOLDER: 1-2 sentences on what Remotefitness is, who it's for, and how long it took from launch to the first paying customer. Only facts Simon wants to share.]

This guide combines practical sales steps with considerations about building and running a SaaS product. It is a starting point, not a formula that works for everyone.

The short answer

Early SaaS customers mostly come from channels that don't scale. This is how I rate the usual options for a new product:

The timings are my rough estimates. They depend on your price, your audience and how many hours you put into selling.

[PLACEHOLDER: which of these channels Simon used for Remotefitness, and which one brought the first paying customer.]

The build itself, from idea to launch, is covered in from idea to SaaS: choices and priorities. This post sticks to one question: how do you get someone to pay?

Where Remotefitness started: a working product, no customers

If you're a developer, building always feels like the productive option. There's one more feature to add, one more bug to fix, one more screen to polish before the product feels ready to show. None of that tells you whether anyone will pay for it.

[PLACEHOLDER: what Remotefitness looked like when Simon started looking for customers: what the product did, who it was built for, and whether there were test users or a waitlist.]

[PLACEHOLDER: what Simon expected would bring in the first customers, and whether that turned out to be true.]

If you're a step earlier than this, start by validating your SaaS idea before you build anything. This post covers the step after that: the product exists, and now someone has to pay for it.

The channels that brought in the first paying customers

These are the three channels I'd tell any new SaaS to start with. Under each one, you'll find what I actually did with Remotefitness.

Your warm network

Start with people who already know you: former colleagues, past clients, partners and people in your industry. They'll read your message, and they'll give you an honest reaction faster than strangers will.

The catch is politeness. Friends say yes to be nice, and a yes costs them nothing. My rule of thumb: a yes only counts once money has changed hands, and it really counts when the customer pays again the following month.

[PLACEHOLDER: whether Remotefitness's first customers came from Simon's network, and how he reached out.]

Personal outreach to a narrow list

Once your network is used up, direct outreach is the most dependable early channel I know of. Here's how I'd run it:

1. Build a list of 30-50 companies or people who fit the product closely.
2. Write a short, personal message about their problem, not about your product.
3. Ask for a 15-minute call, not a purchase.
4. Follow up once after a week. More reminders than that tend to annoy people.

Expect a low reply rate. That's normal and says nothing about the product. What matters is what the few people who reply tell you on the call.

[PLACEHOLDER: whether Simon contacted potential Remotefitness customers directly, roughly how many, and what worked in those messages.]

Communities your buyers already use

Most audiences gather somewhere: an industry association, a LinkedIn group, a Slack community, a trade fair that everyone in the sector attends. In those places, being useful long before you mention your product works far better than pitching. Answer questions, share what you know, and let people come to you.

Paul Graham makes the same case in his essay Do Things That Don't Scale: most startups have to recruit their first users one at a time instead of waiting to be discovered. The essay is from 2013, and the point still holds for a small SaaS. Nobody stumbles onto your product in the early days.

[PLACEHOLDER: whether Simon used communities, partners, launch sites or other channels for Remotefitness, and what came of it.]

A note on small markets

Selling in a small European market changes the math. In Denmark, the Nordics or a niche industry, your list of ideal customers might be a few hundred names, not tens of thousands. That makes broad marketing inefficient, but it makes personal outreach unusually effective: people are reachable, word travels fast, and one good reference can open several doors. It also means a burned bridge costs more, so keep your outreach personal and polite.

Turning interest into a paid account

The biggest drop happens between "sounds interesting" and someone entering card details. Four things usually help:

• Have a price from day one. A free beta with no end date tells you nothing about willingness to pay.
• Ask directly. When a call goes well, ask whether they'd like to start today, and say what it costs.
• Onboard each customer yourself. Set up the account together on a screen share so they see the value straight away.
• Give early customers a perk with an end date, for example a discount for the first year in return for regular feedback. Avoid free forever.

[PLACEHOLDER: how Remotefitness took payment from its first customers: paid from day one, a free trial or an introductory discount, and why Simon chose that.]

[PLACEHOLDER: what made the first customer decide to pay, ideally in the customer's own words if they've agreed to be quoted.]

What this means if you're hiring someone to build your SaaS

If you're planning a SaaS and about to hire a developer, this is the key point: a developer can build your product, but can't sell it for you. Without a plan for your first customers, you risk spending a large budget on something nobody has heard of.

Being ready for paying customers takes less than most founders think. You typically need login, the one core feature the product exists for, a way to pay and the essential emails. Everything else can follow as customers tell you what's missing. You can see how I cut a first version down in my MVP development process, week by week.

It also means you shouldn't hire me, or any other developer, if you have neither access to your audience nor a clear idea of how to reach it. Spend a few weeks on conversations and a simple landing page first. Finding out that nobody will pay is far cheaper before the code exists than after.

If you already have a list of interested buyers, though, it's a good time to build the smallest version they can pay for.

What I'd do differently today

[PLACEHOLDER: 2-3 things Simon would do differently to land Remotefitness's first customers faster, for example starting sales earlier, picking a narrower audience or charging more.]

[PLACEHOLDER: what worked best, and what Simon would do the same way again.]

Two mistakes are classic for a first SaaS: sales start too late, and the price is set too low because low feels safe. Both are easy to fix early and hard to fix once you have a customer base used to the low price.

Read more about 10 pitfalls in SaaS development. And if you want to work out how many customers you need to break even, start with what it costs to run a SaaS each month.

Next steps: from first customers to a product that can grow

Your first 10 customers aren't a growth strategy. They're how you find out what the product should be. Listen to why they pay, and fix whatever makes them stall. Once you know what to say and who to say it to, you can invest in channels that scale, such as content, SEO and ads.

If your product still needs to be built, or a first version needs to be made ready for paying customers, here's how I approach SaaS development for founders and growing businesses.

Frequently asked questions

How many customers does a new SaaS need to break even?+

It depends on your price and your fixed costs. Work backwards: add up your monthly spend on hosting, tools and any salaries, then divide by the price per customer. If running the product costs €1,500 a month and you charge €50 per customer, you need 30 paying customers to cover it. That figure doesn't include your own time.

Should early customers get a discount?+

Often yes, but give it an end date and get something in return. That could be regular feedback, a testimonial you can use, or an annual commitment. Avoid lifetime discounts and free-forever deals. They lock you into a price you can rarely raise later without letting down the very customers who believed in you first.

Can you sell a SaaS before it's built?+

Yes, and it's often the strongest test of the idea. You can offer discounted pre-payment, sign up a few design partners who get a say in the product in exchange for paying early, or run a waitlist with a clear price on it. Money paid before the product exists is a much stronger signal than sign-ups for a free beta.

What if nobody wants to pay?+

Then you've learned something valuable before spending more. Go back to the people who said no and ask why: is it the price, the problem or the audience? If the problem isn't painful enough, more features rarely help. Adjust the audience or the offer and test again before you build anything else.