How To Get Your First Customers episode artwork

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/applyWork at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobsChapters:00:00 – The Minimum Evolvable Product00:46 – Finding the First Believers01:29 – Counterintuitive Rules To Get Early Users02:10 – Learn Fast, Don’t Fear Churn02:52 – How Early Users Shape the Market You Enter04:22 – Tesla Case Study05:14 – How To Build To Evolve

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/applyWork at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobsChapters:00:00 – The Minimum Evolvable Product00:46 – Finding the First Believers01:29 – Counterintuitive Rules To Get Early Users02:10 – Learn Fast, Don’t Fear Churn02:52 – How Early Users Shape the Market You Enter04:22 – Tesla Case Study05:14 – How To Build To Evolve

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This episode was published on January 14, 2026.

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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...

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