Do You Know Who You're Building For?

First Users vs. Ideal Users

There is an important distinction between your first users and your ideal users:

First users — could be a friend from college, a neighbour, your grandma. Anyone willing to try your product early.
Ideal users — who your product ultimately solves the problem for, and who is willing to use it the most or pay you the most money.

Finding Your Ideal Customer

A simple trick to identify early potential ideal customers:

Segment your users into cohorts based on an engagement metric (time on site, rides taken, workouts registered, etc.)
Focus on the top 10% of engaged users
Ask yourself:
- What do these users look like?
- What are their occupations?
- Where are they located?
- Why are they engaging with my product?
- How much time are they spending on the platform?
Use this information to build a blueprint for your ideal customer

Example: A small business that needs help with web design but cannot justify hiring a full-time software engineer. This is the ideal customer blueprint for a marketplace of freelancers.

Only Onboard Customers Who Fit

Winning founders understand their customers deeply. Superhuman is a great example of a company that takes this seriously.

CEO Rahul Vohra only onboards email "power users" because of the product's relatively high price point (~$360/year for an email client). His reasoning:

If a customer is not the right fit, they will likely have a bad experience
They will churn quickly
The entire cost of acquiring that customer is wasted

Superhuman actually rejects potential customers who are not a good fit. Instead, Rahul spends time only on customers he knows will love and use the product. This is a disciplined application of ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) thinking.