# Your first hundred customers

What has to change as a software company moves from its first ten customers to a repeatable way of finding the next ninety.

Canonical URL: https://worldenterprise.org/briefs/first-100-customers/
Last updated: 2026-10-11
Publisher: World Enterprise, run by World Enterprise Group Incorporated

Most founders can find their first ten customers by asking around. The next ninety ask for something different: a method that does not depend on who the founders happen to know. This brief looks at what has to change as a software company moves from favors to a process.

It reads public sources on market research, on the email rules of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, on how customer quotes and reviews may be used, and on how a payment provider models a subscription. It separates what those sources report from analysis of how a young company might use them, and it offers no target number of calls, conversion rate or timeline.

The brief closes with questions to ask before scaling a channel and a plain list of what it cannot tell you, including which channel suits your buyer.

It is general information for founders. It is not legal, tax or investment advice.

## What is inside

- The question this brief answers
- About the evidence
- What changes between ten and a hundred
- Know who the first ten were
- Find the next ninety
- Outreach rules that apply before you send
- Using customer words and reviews honestly
- Turn a sale into a repeatable one
- Measure learning, not activity
- Questions to ask before you scale a channel
- What this brief cannot tell you
- Sources