The first SaaS customer is harder to find than the product was to build, and I say that as someone whose background is marketing. ReviewMix went from first commit to a public launch in about ten weeks. Finding the people who will pay for it is taking longer, and this article is an honest account of what I have tried, written while I am still doing it.
How do you find the first customer for a new SaaS?
You find the first customer for a new SaaS by choosing one buyer, going to the places where that buyer already asks the question your product answers, and making it free to try. That is the method I am following with ReviewMix; it is a practice I am testing, not a formula I can promise.
Each part of that sentence was learned the slow way:
- One buyer. A product for "small businesses" is a product for nobody in particular. A clear buyer decides the words, the price and the channels.
- Where the question is asked. People do not search for a product they have not heard of; they search for their problem. Being present at the problem beats announcing the product.
- Free to try. A stranger will not pay to find out whether an unknown tool works. A free plan that does real work removes that first barrier.
What ReviewMix has tried
ReviewMix has used four channels so far, all run by me. The aim was to learn what people respond to before spending on reach.
- Daily posts on six brand accounts: LinkedIn, X, Mastodon, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest, from September 2026, each post written for its network rather than copied across.
- A blog written around real questions: articles that answer what a business owner types into a search engine or an AI assistant, such as how to get more Google reviews or whether a widget slows a site down.
- Founder conversations on Reddit: answering questions in my own name and teaching rather than pitching.
- A Free plan that covers one Google business and one website, so a single-location business can use ReviewMix for real without paying.
The blog is the channel I expect most from over time, because an answer stays findable long after a social post has scrolled away.
What did not work as expected
What did not work as expected is that activity felt like progress long before it was progress. Posting every day on six networks produces a steady stream of numbers, and very few of those numbers are customers.
The clearest lesson came from the brand accounts themselves: the first followers were me and my family. That is normal for a new account and it is fine, but it is a useful reminder that a follower count is not traction. I now treat impressions as a sign that a message is readable, and only a sign-up, a reply or a real question as a sign that it is relevant.
The other surprise is that knowing marketing does not shorten this stage much. Marketing knowledge tells you how to write the message; it cannot tell you who is ready to buy before anyone has tried the product. That only comes from talking to people.
Why the target buyer changed
ReviewMix's target buyer changed on 2 September 2026, from independent founders to local service businesses reached through the agency that runs their website. A founder with one website needs one widget, once. The second group has a recurring reason: an agency maintaining many client websites wants one place to show reviews on all of them under one subscription.
The prices moved with the buyer. Pro is €12 a month, Agency €29 and Studio €69, with annual billing at €10, €24 and €57.50 a month. Below a certain price a tool reads as a hobby to an agency that resells it to clients, so the change was made before any customer existed, which meant nobody had to be migrated. The full breakdown is on the ReviewMix pricing page, and the agency side of the argument is in how to price review management as an agency service.
What I am doing now
What I am doing now is narrowing rather than widening. ReviewMix's blog focuses on the questions agencies and local businesses ask, the social posts point back to those answers, and every conversation with a potential user is about their problem before it is about the product.
I am also writing in public, this article included. A founder who has not found a first customer yet is not a story most companies tell, but it is an honest one, and the businesses ReviewMix is for are small enough to recognise the stage. If you run an agency or a local business and this sounds like your problem, the Free plan is the quickest way to find out whether ReviewMix solves it.
