How I got my first 5 customers without a landing page

2.5 months after the first commit and 1.5 months after getting my first customer, I'm finally at $100 MRR with 5 customers for my Twitter DM tool. Although I have a landing page now, all of my customers came through DMs. Some of them contacted me, but I found and contacted most of them myself using the same tool I'm selling. Every customer has unique requirements. For example, the last one wants English-speaking leads with the Gumroad link in the bio, but not those who sell adult content. Another one needs 3 different audiences with 3 different generated DM styles. For now, I have 5 scripts that I run every day. This is because when I asked them to pay for an unfinished product, I promised that I would add any feature that they would request. As a result, I'm creating the most flexible Twitter DM tool. It's easy to generate a DM using GPT, but the most interesting part is how to find relevant leads. I don't know how to make automated onboarding that would cover all these diverse requirements but I hope that ChatGPT will be helpful here, too. Here's a brief story, step by step: - Started using automated scripts to DM people about my previous project. - Added GPT3-generated messages because I wasn't happy with the lack of personal touch. - Mentioned it in a comment on Twitter (I think someone asked "what you're working on"). - Someone DM-ed me and said they wanted it too. When asked how much they would pay for it, they said $100-$200/mo for full automation. But they wanted to see it first. - So I built a Web-based prototype in 2 weeks. - This person disappeared but after a week or two I found another person who tried my awful prototype and agreed to buy a subscription. - Since then, it was all about DM-ing new niches, having conversations, convincing them to become a customer, and making them happy. I must say that, although it looks like an overnight success, it's just the last of many projects that I tried to sell. My advice, as usual, is:  - Put an absurd amount of effort into initial validation (unless you're doing it for fun). - If the people "kinda like it" but not asking you for a payment link, it's time to move to the next idea.  - (This is why it's important to not get too attached to your idea.) - Ask open questions ("how much would you pay for this?").  - Start with something small, something that you can prototype quickly. - Only build a prototype when someone really wants to use it ("Let me use it for free in exchange for feedback" doesn't count -- you need feedback from paying users). - You probably don't need a domain or a landing page to get your first couple of customers.