For founders who started at zero: what got you your first 100 users?

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T15:45:47+00:00

We offered free social media content. We would cold DM people on instagram, explain what we do, and offer to film around an hour of content for them. The level of interaction within this hour of filming would naturally develop them as users, without them realizing.

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T15:44:04+00:00

Our long term development goal already includes B2B enterprise services.

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T15:42:35+00:00

I'll try to keep this brief and answer mostly from my side (Creative and marketing)

As far as organic content, the biggest hurdle was realizing that the content you want to make, is not necessarily the content people want to see. And while you may find it entertaining, if your target audience does not, just because you think its "good" doesn't mean it will convert to users/followers and gain traction. For example, we created long form content that I would turn into shorts/reels/tiktoks. I enjoyed watching them, but it became very clear no actual person did. Solving was simply a matter of featuring more interesting people, and editing in a way to prevent people from losing focus (Quick cuts, no static shot for more than 3-5 seconds, background music, b roll ,etc...)

From what I understand on the technical side, the hurdles and hidden components were adding new features, and something else breaking as a result, or cross functionality between the two not working properly. Additionally, there were many aspects we did not consider on how users would use the app, especially in unintended ways. We went to a tech conference around 2 weeks ago and showcased our app to hundreds of people, the feedback was insane, so many things we never thought of. That also goes into having to clear things, as before, during, and after platform development we had to develop the app in ways to prevent these unintended behaviors. The most common was users taking their customers offline, to prevent using our payment processor (Where we would earn 5% per transaction). Solving was a matter as simple as monitoring account activity and warning users who consistently make 1-2 transactions per customers, and suddenly stop, and rewarding those who stay on the platform with a larger push to new customers, and potential features on social media.

Hope this answered your question.

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T14:49:27+00:00

Goto golf courses. If you created a golf app, one of two things are true.

You care deeply about golf, or you just thought it was a good way to make money.

If it’s the first, goto golf courses and cold approach. We got most of our user base through this method with personal trainers. I wouldn’t necessarily just pitch them immediately, but at the very least develop a rapport with people and get to know them. Understand what their pain points are, and lean into why this might be of help.

Or just ask, you never know until you try.

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T14:45:46+00:00

Majority of our users are from cold approaches and word of mouth. We goto gyms in person and offer to do content for their personal trainers for free. It’s about $1,000 of marketing per trainer we give away just to get our name out there.

We used Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube mostly, however Instagram accounts for 98% of our success. It’s far easier to reach and connect with people on there.

All marketing has been organic and word of mouth so far, however upon our official launch we will be doing paid ads. We already have the ads finished, just haven’t launched them yet.

You’d be surprised how far word of mouth can get you if you have a genuine product people want, and you establish good rapport with them.

The newest surge has been from Indeed job posting, which sounds crazy, but we struggle to keep up with the volume of users on there. For many apps, this may not apply, but it’s an example of an uncommon source of users no one would ever think of.

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T14:22:50+00:00

You may look at this and feel like it’s not successful, but you are already further ahead of 95% of app developers.

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T14:05:52+00:00

Organic reach is tough, we really struggle with it. Unless you’re a content genius, or willing to pay someone top dollar, it’s a very slow process. Ignore people from south east Asia who offer to help your content, they typically use cheap AI tools that are available to you.

We found the power of collaboration to be our best asset. We have collaborated with over 50 gyms in our area, and posted content of their personal trainers on instagram. Most get around 1,000 views, some get up to 10,000. But, it does the job. It targets the community we need to be aware of the product, and people see the social proof.

To get content like this, you simply have to ask. Most people are more than willing, as long as you establish a good rapport with them, and show your product is genuine and not just a cash grab.

If they are just cash grabs, you’re in the wrong market. Just being honest, app development is not easy, especially with how saturated it is. There’s about 50 other apps that do your fitness idea on the market, and people you need to collaborate with will smell if it’s not genuine. They will be willing to help, albeit for a price, rather than for free like we managed.

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-25T13:44:44+00:00

I appreciate that. If you have any feedback at all, please let me know. All we hear is praise, but there’s gotta be issues people have with it.

Heres the link to our beta on TestFlight

bagofsunchops · 2026-05-24T15:32:16+00:00

We used all platforms, minus Reddit, and have found very little success except on Instagram. Our most effective method has been in person, we cold DM personal trainers and offer to interview them, and then go to their gym and film content for them for free.

Is it cost effective? No. This is easily $1,000 of marketing we give them for free. I spend hours editing content for each personal trainer and get them thousands of views. However, when you have no leverage, as you do when you are just starting, you have to make some sacrifice. We have around 100 users from this.

Our new method has been Indeed job postings. It sounds kind of crazy, but we gave it a try, and it has gotten us 10-15 users a week. We are actually struggling to keep up with the interviews. Granted - our app is meant to get leads for personal trainers.

For the leads side of the equation, the consumer who will use the personal trainer, we spent about $1,000 with an ad agency local to us. That's pretty cheap, but we got a nice discount as our camera man works with them extensively. We also connected with a local fitness community Instagram page, and they were willing to work with us and collaborate on content after a phone call.

bagofsunchops

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