Why Getting My First Users Makes Me More Excited Than Anything
The emotional and practical significance of getting your first users as a solo developer. It's not about the numbers it's about validation, dopamine, and proof that what you built actually matters.
You can build the perfect product in isolation for months.
But until someone you don't know chooses to use it, you're just coding in the dark.
Getting my first users isn't just a milestone it's the moment everything shifts from theory to reality.
Here's why that first user hits different than any feature launch, any code refactor, or any technical achievement I've ever had.
What First Users Actually Validate (Beyond Your Ego)
I've shipped products that nobody used.
The code was clean. The features worked. The deployment was smooth. But crickets.
When you get your first user especially one who found you organically, not your mom or a friend doing you a favor something fundamental changes.
It's validation that someone else has the problem you're solving.
Not validation that your solution is perfect. Not validation that you'll make millions. Just validation that you're not building in a complete vacuum.
That matters more than any technical metric.
I remember my first organic user for a side project I built in 2024. I woke up to a notification that someone I'd never heard of had signed up. No outreach. No promotion. They found it, understood what it did, and decided it was worth trying.
That dopamine hit lasted for days.
Not because I suddenly had traction. But because for the first time, the thing I built existed in someone else's reality.
The Emotional Shift That Nobody Talks About
Building alone is mentally exhausting.
You're the developer, the designer, the marketer, the support team, and the person second-guessing every decision at 11 PM.
First users change the emotional weight of the work.
Before users.. you're building what you think people need. After users.. you're building what actual humans are trying to use.
That shift is massive.
Suddenly you're not optimizing for your own assumptions. You're fixing the thing that confused that person in Spain who emailed you. You're adding the feature that three people asked about in the same week.
The work becomes collaborative even though you're still building alone.
Research from the indie hacker community shows this consistently founders describe the first user experience as "a ray of sunshine after a stormy day."
It's not hyperbole.
When you've been in the weeds for months, that first external signal that you're onto something is emotionally significant in a way that's hard to explain to people who haven't built something from scratch.
Why First Users Beat First Dollars (Sometimes)
Don't get me wrong first revenue is incredible.
But sometimes the first user matters more than the first paying customer.
Here's why..
A paying customer validates your pricing. A free user validates your problem.
I've had products where the first dozen users were free, and their feedback taught me what the actual pain point was. Not what I thought it was. What it actually was.
By the time I asked for money, I knew exactly what value I was delivering because real people had told me.
That's worth more than launching with a paywall and wondering why nobody converts.
One solo founder I researched spent two months trying to get their first paying customer. When it finally happened, there was a payment processing bug. The customer waited. Fixed it. Subscribed anyway.
That's the kind of validation you can't manufacture.
The Flywheel Effect.. From Zero to Momentum
Here's what happens after you get your first few users..
- You get real feedback (not your own assumptions)
- You fix the most obvious problems
- The product gets slightly better
- Word spreads, even if it's just one person telling a friend
- More users show up
This is the flywheel.
And it doesn't start until you have users.
I've seen this play out with my own projects. The gap between zero users and ten users feels impossible. The gap between ten and fifty happens faster. The gap between fifty and a hundred feels inevitable.
But that first step from zero to one is the hardest and the most important.
Because once you have one, you know the next one is possible.
What I've Learned From Watching That First Number Tick Up
Getting my first users taught me things no amount of coding or planning could..
People don't use products the way you expect.
The feature I spent two weeks on? Barely used. The thing I added as an afterthought? Ended up being the main reason people signed up.
Most people won't tell you what's broken.
They'll just leave. The ones who do reach out? Those are your early champions. Treat them like gold.
Organic discovery is possible, but you have to make it easy.
My first users mostly came from one Reddit post I wrote. Not promotional. Just answering a question someone asked and mentioning what I'd built as a side note.
That one post generated more traction than weeks of "marketing" ever did.
How First Users Change What You Build Next
Before users, I built features I thought were important.
After users, I built features they asked for.
Sometimes those are the same thing. Often they're not.
The best product decisions I've made came directly from watching how real people used what I built.
Not from analytics dashboards. Not from growth hacking articles. From actual humans telling me "I love this, but I wish it did X."
That's the kind of insight you can't get from building in isolation.
And it only starts when you ship and get people to actually try the thing.
What You Should Do Next
Here's what actually matters..
- Ship something before it's perfect. Your first users care about whether it solves their problem, not whether the code is beautiful.
- Make it easy to find. One well-placed Reddit comment or forum post can bring you your first 10 users. Stop overthinking distribution.
- Pay attention to who shows up. Your first users will tell you who your actual audience is, and it's probably not who you expected.
Start here..
If you've been building something and haven't shared it yet, post it somewhere this week. Reddit, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, a niche forum wherever your people hang out.
Don't wait for it to be ready. It'll never feel ready.
The gap between zero users and one is the only gap that matters. Everything else is just optimization.
Go close it.