# first-50-users

Guides founders through direct, unscalable tactics to secure their first 50 developer users in existing discovery channels without running paid ads.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · ★ 327
- Author: AIDevGTM
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder/tree/HEAD/skills/09-first-50-users/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-19
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/first-50-users

## What it does

This skill adapts frameworks from Adam Frankl and Jakub Czakon to steer founders away from broad posting. Before reaching product-market fit, early traction requires direct work: messaging engineers who publicly raised your problem on GitHub or Reddit, and turning early contacts into design partners.

Channel selection relies on findings in `docs/gtm-cofounder/market-research.md` alongside target user interviews. If that document is missing or older than a quarter, run `research-the-market` beforehand. Setting up a dedicated Discord server with five members is counterproductive, as an empty room signals abandonment.

The skill also checks onboarding: a developer must extract value from documentation in under an hour. When week-two retention stays near zero, pumping traffic into the product only feeds a leaky bucket.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 09-first-50-users -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/09-first-50-users/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/09-first-50-users/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 09-first-50-users -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/09-first-50-users/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 09-first-50-users -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/09-first-50-users/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder 09-first-50-users
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/09-first-50-users/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 09-first-50-users -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --path skills/09-first-50-users
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/09-first-50-users/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 09-first-50-users -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder/tree/HEAD/skills/09-first-50-users/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- focus outreach on one specific developer community instead of broad posting
- identify public GitHub and Reddit discussions about your core problem
- convert advisory board contacts into early product design partners
- verify that new developers reach first value in under an hour from docs

## Example prompts
- Pick the best initial channel for my developer tool using `docs/gtm-cofounder/market-research.md`
- Draft a direct outreach approach for developers posting about our problem on GitHub
- Evaluate whether our onboarding flow lets developers get value within an hour

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 9db327fae621a788.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 9db327fae621a788
```text
---
name: first-50-users
description: "Get the first 50 real users through channels the user's ICP already uses. Use when the product shipped and nobody came, the user is \"posting more\" with no result, or is reaching for paid ads before product-market fit."
---

# Your first 50 users

> You don't get your first 50 users by posting more. You get them by going where your users *already* discover tools, and, at the start, by doing things that don't scale.

**Use this when:** you launched to silence, you're spraying every channel hoping one works, or you're about to buy ads to fix a problem ads can't fix.

## The core idea

Every developer audience has an existing **technology-discovery loop**: the specific places they already go to find new tools. Your job isn't to invent demand; it's to position yourself *inside that loop*. And your first cohort is hand-to-hand: the TAB members from `talk-to-users` are your first users.

## Framework: the top of the DREAM funnel (Frankl)

- **Discovery**: be where developers look: the communities, newsletters, influencers, and searches your ICP already uses. Metric: unique humans, not pageviews.
- **Research**: give the interested dev a next step *before they forget you*: newsletter, Discord, free tier, docs. Developers can sit in Research for months, so sustain the relationship.

Then **Evaluation** decides everything (see `know-if-its-working`): can a new dev get value **over a weekend, from docs and Stack Overflow, with no support call?** If not, more traffic just fills a leaky bucket.

## Framework: channels by stage (Czakon)

**Pre-PMF (you are here for the first 50):** unscalable, direct, high-touch.
- The people who posted about the problem (HN/Reddit/GitHub issues/X), DM them, personally.
- Your TAB → convert to design partners / first users.
- Founder posting *genuinely useful* things where the ICP hangs out (not "we launched!").
- One deep launch (see `launch-it`), not ten shallow ones.

**Post-PMF (later):** content/SEO, community, dev-influencer partnerships, then paid to *amplify* what already converts, never to *discover* it. And once the first 50 are in and retention holds, the hand-to-hand work graduates: build the self-reinforcing engine in `growth-loops`.

## How to pick the channel (don't do all of them)

You should already have two sources: the ranked watering holes in `docs/gtm-cofounder/market-research.md` (from `research-the-market`), and what real users told you in `talk-to-users` question 7 ("where do you go to stay current?"). Where they agree, that's your channel. Where they disagree, trust the users. If there's no research file yet, or it's more than a quarter old, run `research-the-market` first: picking channels from memory is how you end up "posting more" in rooms your ICP isn't in.
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 9db327fae621a788

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