Long-horizon business incubation and consulting

Search the site
Start a readiness review
Start a readiness review

Executive brief

Your first hundred customers

From finding customers by effort to finding them by a method

Request this brief See the outline

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.

The brief at a glance

The chapters in reading order, and one public figure that frames the question the brief answers.

The chapters, as a constellation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Why venture-backed startups shut down
Show the figures as a table
Why venture-backed startups shut down
GroupShare citing the reason
Ran out of capital70%
Poor product-market fit43%
Bad timing or market conditions29%
Unsustainable unit economics19%

Venture-backed startups that shut down since 2023 with identifiable reasons; a company can give several, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

Source: CB Insights, The top reasons startups fail , published March 5, 2026

These figures describe the wider market, not WE's results.

Format
Written brief
Updated
October 11, 2026
Sections
12

What the brief covers

The sections of the full brief, in order. WE sends the full text by email to the address you give.

  1. The question this brief answers
  2. About the evidence
  3. What changes between ten and a hundred
  4. Know who the first ten were
  5. Find the next ninety
  6. Outreach rules that apply before you send
  7. Using customer words and reviews honestly
  8. Turn a sale into a repeatable one
  9. Measure learning, not activity
  10. Questions to ask before you scale a channel
  11. What this brief cannot tell you
  12. Sources

Request the brief

Request the brief: The first 100 customers

WE sends the brief by email to the address you give.

WE sends the brief to this address.

Optional.

Optional.

Read the privacy notice. WE sets no cookies and loads no third-party scripts.

This brief gives considerations for founders. It is not legal, tax or investment advice.

Executive brief

Funding paths for founders

Seven ways to pay for early software work, compared by what each asks of the company: customers, awards, loans, shares, convertible instruments and crowds.

Updated October 10, 2026. 15 sections.

Executive brief

Company setup for founders

Seven choices a first-time founder makes when forming a company: legal form, state, tax treatment, founder shares, ownership of the work, name and tax number.

Updated October 10, 2026. 14 sections.

Executive brief

Building an AI-native product

Six considerations for founders building on a language model: risk process, attacks, authority, evaluation and law, and what each asks of the design.

Updated October 10, 2026. 13 sections.

Start a readiness review

Tell WE where the company stands. WE replies to arrange a conversation and a written read of your company's timeline.

Start a readiness review Get the timeline brief

A short PDF of the charts and sources, sent by email to the address you give.

Talk to WE : A question that does not fit a form.