HowTheyGotUsersHowTheyGotUsers

Land a Paid Pilot With a Manual Excel 'MVP'

Land a Paid Pilot With a Manual Excel 'MVP' is a first users & traction tactic for getting your first users: Validated by interviewing prospects, then won a paid proof-of-concept by taking one customer's data dump and delivering dashboards and insights entirely in Excel, with no real product built yet.

It's a strong fit for B2B SaaS teams, and works especially well for B2B data/analytics services, early validation. As a first users & traction play, plan for medium effort and expect results to show up quickly, all grounded in 1 linked primary source.

First users & tractionMedium effortFast

Why does first users & traction work for this?

It proves value and gets you paid before sinking time into engineering a real product.

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
B2B SaaS

Frequently asked

What kind of products does the "Land a Paid Pilot With a Manual Excel 'MVP'" tactic work for?
It is a good fit for B2B SaaS — pick it when your product looks like that, since the play is shaped around how those users find new tools.
How is the "Land a Paid Pilot With a Manual Excel 'MVP'" 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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