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Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by dangrossman on Tuesday December 13, 2011 @11:18PM (#3350565)
The first time around, it was the day I opened the site, since the site was a store and I knew exactly where to get good free advertising for what I was selling.

These days, the apps I build are a lot more complex and targeted to very specific business use cases... and I'm lucky to get a couple signups in a month, despite nonstop Google/Bing PPC advertising.

Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by MattBearman on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @10:47AM (#3352226)
With BugMuncher it was less than a day , and Hacker News is directly responsible.

I posted a Show HN, someone at The Next Web saw that and wrote and article about BugMuncher. On the back of that article I had 5 customers with in a day! Of which I think 4 are still paying customers :)

Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by glimcat on Tuesday December 13, 2011 @11:46PM (#3350650)
A couple days. I made about $16 before putting things on hold because I was too busy and because I needed to come back with a more scalable model.

But let me tell you, that first $16 is addicting.

Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by aysar on Monday December 19, 2011 @12:18PM (#3370249)
About 2 weeks, my startup was targeted to students at a specific location.

Not much marketing was done; besides facebook and flyer distribution.

Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by masonhensley on Tuesday December 13, 2011 @10:01PM (#3350382)
Do you mean...

How long did it take to get your first customer?

-or-

How long did your first customer keep paying?

I am assuming the first.

Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by brucedou on Tuesday December 13, 2011 @10:15PM (#3350419)
Title updated.
Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by fezzl on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @12:06AM (#3350700)
From pivot or from first iteration? If the former, a couple of weeks. If the latter, 5 months.
Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by dholowiski on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @12:34AM (#3350780)
I'm still working on that.
Re:Ask HN: How long did it take to get your first customer? by davidhansen on Tuesday December 13, 2011 @11:40PM (#3350629)
From launch? Roughly an hour.