YC Sales Mastery: From Zero to First Customers

Carefully read and annotate Paul Graham's essay. Identify examples of 'unscalable' activities that led to startup success.

“Startups don't take off by themselves. Startups take off because founders make them take off.”

Reflect on the reading and brainstorm three 'unscalable' tactics applicable to your startup. Document these ideas and prioritize one to implement.

Deconstruct the Brex founder's email to the YC batch. Identify its key elements and value propositions. Adapt this approach for your own product.

“Founders should learn how to do sales because you'll need to learn to know your customer.”

Write a concise, plain-text email targeting your ideal customer. Highlight the problem you solve and your unique value proposition. Include a clear call to action.

Share your crafted email with a peer or mentor and solicit feedback on clarity, conciseness, and overall effectiveness. Iterate based on the feedback received.

Create a spreadsheet to track potential customers. Include columns for industry, company, title, name, email, and LinkedIn profile.

“Your first customers should be your easiest.”

Send your crafted sales emails to your list of potential customers. Track open rates, response rates, demo schedules, and closed deals.

Focus on leads most likely to close. Avoid dragging conversations. Don't be afraid to let go of slow-moving or unresponsive leads. Identify early adopters.

“Avoid those who are moving slow and don't be afraid of letting customers go.”

Use a CRM (e.g., Apollo.io, Close.com) to track all sales activities including emails sent, open rates, demos scheduled, and deals closed.

Establish your price and the specific value that customers would be getting from your product or service. Start with a money-back guarantee rather than a free trial.

“If you don't charge your customers they are not a customer and you don't have a company”

Draft a clear and concise money-back guarantee for your product or service. Outline the terms and conditions and ensure it's easy for customers to understand.

Track all sales activities on a CRM.

“Because you don't know who is an early adopter, you have a lot of drop off in the outbound sales that makes up on sales ultimately a numbers game and successful startups we like this and internalize this”

Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) sales targets. Track your progress against these targets weekly and adjust your strategies as needed.