How to get your first 10 real reviews for your service
Founders share real-world advice on overcoming the hurdle of getting initial customer reviews. Most suggest leveraging personal networks and niche communities rather than cold outreach.
When launching a new SaaS product, you often face the problem of needing reviews to get users, but needing users to get reviews. Experienced founders recommend giving your service away for free to friends or active community members in exchange for honest feedback. Building a personal brand or being helpful in specific forums creates the trust needed for someone to take the time to write a review. These first 10 reviews act as Social proof, making it much easier to convert future visitors into paying customers.
Key points
- Ask friends or early testers for honest reviews to build initial credibility.
- Focus on niche communities where your target audience hangs out and be helpful first.
- Avoid spamming strangers; polite requests to people you have already interacted with work best.
Quick term guide
- founders
- People who are starting or running their own business or project.
- founder
- A person who starts a new company or project.
- persona
- A specific personality or role that an AI agent is set to play.
- cold outreach
- Sending unsolicited messages or emails to strangers to introduce your product, without any prior connection
- outreach
- Contacting people directly to start a conversation or ask for interest.
- feedback
- A response that tells a user what they did well or should fix.
- social proof
- Evidence that other people use or trust your product, such as user counts, reviews, or logos of known customers.
- early testers
- People who try a product before launch and give feedback on what works or breaks.