Getting your first customers for a niche B2B SaaS is mostly a conversation problem, not a marketing problem. The buyers are few, they hang out in a handful of places, and they will tell you what they need if you ask the right way.
The broader launch guide on getting your first 10 paying customers covers the whole sequence, from the pre-launch checklist to launch day. This article zooms in on one piece: finding the places where your niche already complains, and starting conversations well before you launch.
Why a narrow niche makes the first 10 easier
A broad market makes you compete for attention. A narrow one lets you do the opposite: find nearly every relevant person and talk to them one by one.
If your niche is "IT teams handling post-acquisition account cleanup" or "agency owners who run manual website audits," you can realistically list the communities, job titles and companies involved. You do not need an audience. You need a list and a reason to talk.
That changes what "marketing" means for the first 10 customers:
- You are not writing content for strangers.
- You are not buying traffic.
- You are finding people who already said they have the problem, and asking about it.
Step 1: Describe your buyer in one sentence
Before you search anywhere, write one sentence in this format:
[Job title] at [type of company] who struggle with [specific recurring task or problem].
For example: "Operations leads at small agencies who repeat the same manual audit for every new client." It is specific enough to search for and specific enough to disqualify people.
Two checks make the sentence useful:
- Can you picture where this person talks about work? If not, narrow further or pick a different niche.
- Does this person control a budget, or can they get one approved? In B2B, a person who feels the pain but cannot buy is a good source of insight and a poor first customer.
Step 2: Find where your niche already complains
People are most honest when they are venting to peers, not answering a survey. That is why communities are the best starting point.
Start with professional communities, not general ones
General startup forums are full of other founders. Your buyers are usually somewhere else, in places where people are trying to get a job done. This guide to finding SaaS ideas on Reddit makes the same point with examples like r/plumbing for plumbers and r/lawyers for legal tech.
For a B2B niche, think in terms of the profession or the system they work in. Sysadmins, accountants, HR teams, agency owners and e-commerce operators each have communities where they swap war stories.
Search for complaint language
People rarely write "I need a SaaS product." They write things like:
- "I hate when..."
- "Is there a better way to..."
- "Why is this so hard..."
- "I would pay for..."
Search those phrases alongside the task in your niche. Sort by recent so you see current frustration, not an old thread. Then read the comments, because the replies often reveal how people currently work around the problem.
Read posts like a researcher
A good complaint post tells you three things: who is speaking, what the process looks like today, and what hurts.
Here is a real example from r/sysadmin: "8 months post-acquisition and we still have 200 people with active accounts in both tenants. Some line-of-business apps were never migrated."
From two sentences you can learn the buyer (someone responsible for identity in a company that went through an acquisition), the trigger (an acquisition), the scale (hundreds of accounts) and the cause of the delay (apps that were never migrated). That is enough to write a targeted question.
Another example, from r/Entrepreneur: "Every time i took on a new client i was doing the same manual analysis over and over. Go through their website, check the SEO, read the copy, look at competitors, figure out where they're leaking money."
The signal here is repetition. A task done for every new client is something a person can describe step by step, which makes for a good interview.
Look beyond Reddit
Reddit is one source. The launch guide also points to Indie Hackers, Slack groups and Discord servers for your target niche, and to people on Twitter/X or LinkedIn who talk about the problem you are solving. Use the same method everywhere: find the complaint, note the context, then talk to the person.
Step 3: Build a simple prospect sheet
A spreadsheet is enough. Make one row per person and keep these columns:
- Name or username and where you found them
- Link to the post or comment
- Their exact words (copy and paste)
- Role and company type, if you can tell
- Current workaround
- Status: not contacted, messaged, replied, call booked, trial, paying
The exact words column matters more than it looks. When you later write a landing page or a message, you can use the language your buyers already use instead of inventing your own.
Aim for 40 to 60 rows before you contact anyone. Most people will not reply, so you need more names than customers.
Step 4: Start the conversation before you launch
Starting early is the point of this whole approach. If you wait until the product is live, you are asking strangers to try something. If you start before, you are asking people about their own problem, which is an easier request.
What a good first message looks like
Keep it short, specific and free of pitch language. The launch guide suggests keeping cold DMs under 3 sentences, and that is a good rule here.
Hi [name], I saw your post about [specific problem]. I'm researching how people handle this and I'm not selling anything yet. Would you be open to a 10-minute chat about how you deal with it today?
Why this works:
- It references something they actually wrote, so it is clearly not a mass blast.
- It asks for a small amount of time.
- It says plainly that you are researching, which is true.
Rules to keep you out of trouble
- Read the community rules first. Some forbid self-promotion or unsolicited messages.
- Reply to the original post or comment publicly when that is welcome. A helpful answer earns more trust than a DM.
- Do not paste a link in your first message.
- Send a small batch, learn from the replies, then adjust your wording.
- If someone says no or does not respond, leave it there.
What to ask on the call
Your goal is to understand the problem, not to demo anything. Questions that work:
- Walk me through the last time this came up.
- What did you do about it? What did that cost in time or money?
- Have you tried any tools? What was wrong with them?
- Who else is involved when this happens?
- If this were solved, who would need to approve paying for it?
The last question is especially important in B2B. It tells you if the person you are talking to can buy, or if you need to find the budget holder.
Step 5: Turn conversations into your first 10 customers
Not everyone you talk to will become a customer, and that is fine. Sort the conversations into three groups.
Strong fit. They described a recurring, painful problem, they already spend time or money on it, and they can buy. Offer them early access when it is ready, ideally at a real price or with a clear path to one.
Good insight, weak fit. They understand the problem but cannot buy, or their situation is unusual. Thank them, keep the notes, and ask whether they know someone who feels it more.
Not a fit. The pain was mild or one-off. Cross them off and move on.
For the strong fits, follow the approach from the launch guide: watch them use the product, ask what is confusing, ask what they would want next, and ask whether they would pay a specific monthly price. Ask for a testimonial or quote if they are happy.
Ask for money earlier than feels comfortable
A person who says "that sounds interesting" has told you little. A person who agrees to a price, a start date or a short pilot has told you much more. You do not need to be pushy. A simple "If I built this, would you want to pay [price] per month to use it?" is a fair question for someone who has just described the problem in detail.
Watch for vague signals
Some complaints sound like demand but are not. Take this one from r/SaaS: "Users like the product but don't leave reviews." It is a real frustration, but it does not say who pays, how often it happens or what has been tried. A follow-up conversation is what turns a vague signal like this into something you can act on.
Speeding up the research with a tool
Doing all of this by hand works, but the searching and sorting take time. SaasNiche scans Reddit communities and surfaces pain points, each scored 0–100 for intensity, frequency and willingness to pay, with verbatim user quotes behind them. Each quote shows the username, upvote count and a source link, so you can check the original post yourself.
It also lets you message the original posters for customer discovery, using a pre-written message you can edit. You can get the same result manually with the spreadsheet above. A tool just shortens the list-building step. If you are still choosing a niche, the 50 micro-SaaS opportunities from Reddit post shows how pain points, quotes and monetization ideas can be laid out for different domains.
A four-week plan
If you want a schedule to work from, this one keeps things moving without being overwhelming.
Week 1: Research. Write your buyer sentence, pick 3 to 5 communities, and fill your prospect sheet with 40 to 60 names.
Week 2: Outreach. Send your first batch of messages, around 10 to 15 at a time. Reply publicly where it is welcome. Adjust your wording after each batch.
Week 3: Conversations. Hold calls, take notes, and sort people into the three groups above. Look for repeated phrases and workarounds.
Week 4: Offers. Go back to the strong fits with a concrete offer: early access, a pilot, or a price. Keep a waitlist for the rest.
You may not have 10 customers at the end of four weeks, especially if you are still building. But you will know who your buyers are, how they talk about the problem, and who is ready to say yes.
Start with your list, then launch
Having a list of real people to talk to before you have a polished product can make your launch feel like a follow-up to existing conversations. Build that list first, talk to the people on it, and the launch becomes a follow-up to conversations you have already had, not an introduction to strangers.
If you want help finding the complaints, you can check the pricing page for the Starter plan, which comes with a 7-day trial and costs $19/month after that.
FAQ
How long does it take to get the first 10 customers for a niche B2B SaaS?
There is no reliable average. It depends on how narrow the niche is, how painful the problem is, how much time you spend on outreach and whether your product is ready to use. Founders who talk to prospects before building usually learn faster whether the problem is worth solving.
Do I need a finished product before I start talking to customers?
No. Conversations about the problem can start before you write code. You do need something usable before you ask people to pay, but early discussions help you decide what to build.
Is it okay to message strangers on Reddit?
It depends on the community and how you do it. Some subreddits restrict self-promotion or direct messages, so read the rules first. A short, specific, non-promotional message that refers to something the person actually wrote is more likely to be received well than a generic pitch.
How many people should I contact to get 10 customers?
There is no fixed ratio. Many people will not reply, and only some of those who do will be a good fit and able to buy. That is why it helps to build a list that is several times larger than your target number of customers.
Should my first customers pay?
Paying customers give you the clearest signal because they have shown they value the product. The launch guide suggests having at least one pricing tier ready to charge. Some founders offer free access in exchange for feedback at the very start, but moving to paid quickly tells you more about real demand.