HowTheyGotUsersHowTheyGotUsers

Bid Only on Jobs With Fewer Than 5 Proposals

Bid Only on Jobs With Fewer Than 5 Proposals is a cold outreach tactic for getting your first users: To dodge the race-to-the-bottom on a saturated freelance marketplace, the founder filtered for listings with very few existing bids so he competed against a handful of freelancers instead of dozens.

It's a strong fit for Agencies / services and Marketplaces teams, and works especially well for freelancers, agencies, service businesses. As a cold outreach play, plan for medium effort and expect results to show up quickly, all grounded in 1 linked primary source.

Cold outreachMedium effortFast

Why does cold outreach work for this?

Low-competition listings dramatically raise the odds your proposal actually gets read and hired.

The exact steps (4)

The full step-by-step this founder ran, what they posted, where, and in what order, plus the watch-outs, is part of the library.

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Sources

Works for
Agencies / servicesMarketplaces

Frequently asked

What kind of products does the "Bid Only on Jobs With Fewer Than 5 Proposals" tactic work for?
It is a good fit for Agencies / services and Marketplaces — pick it when your product looks like one of those, since the play is shaped around how those users find new tools.
How is the "Bid Only on Jobs With Fewer Than 5 Proposals" tactic verified?
It is drawn from 1 primary source — a real founder write-up or interview, not generic advice. It is linked in the Sources section above so you can read the original account yourself.
How much effort is it and how fast are results?
It is medium effort, and results tend to be fast.
Where can I see the exact step-by-step?
The full step-by-step a founder ran, documented via Source — IndieHackers, is in the paid library.

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