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EPISODE · Jan 14, 2026 · 5 MIN

How To Get Your First Customers

from Y Combinator Startup Podcast · host Y Combinator

When you're starting out, it isn’t enough to just build a minimum viable product. You also need a minimum evolvable product - one that can adapt to the needs of those critical early customers. In this episode of Main Function, YC General Partner Ankit Gupta offers an update to the classic MVP playbook. He’ll outline strategies for getting your first customers, the power of adaptability and how feedback from early users will ultimately shape the future of your product and your company. Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs Chapters: 00:00 – The Minimum Evolvable Product 00:46 – Finding the First Believers 01:29 – Counterintuitive Rules To Get Early Users 02:10 – Learn Fast, Don’t Fear Churn 02:52 – How Early Users Shape the Market You Enter 04:22 – Tesla Case Study 05:14 – How To Build To Evolve

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jan 14, 2026

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