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Mar 16, 2023 · 30m · founders-journal

How To Get Your Initial Customers

Alex Lieberman · 27m spoken Jesse Pujji · 2s spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of The Crazy Ones, host Alex Lieberman breaks down actionable strategies and frameworks for acquiring a startup's first 1,000 customers. Drawing on Morning Brew's early grassroots tactics, the Hub and Spoke distribution model, real-time testing for his new startup The Plunge, and iconic tech case studies, Alex provides founders with a tactical guide to unlocking early growth.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Alex holds 99.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Alex as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 Alex pushing back 0.0
05100:0010:0020:0030:001:54–9:07 · Alex as informed peer 0/10 How Morning Brew Acquired Its First Subscribers Alex Lieberman delivers a solo monologue detailing how Morning Brew acquired its first 1,000 subscribers. Because this is a monologue without guest interaction, all dynamic scores are set to 0.9:07–11:16 · Alex as informed peer 0/10 The Hub and Spoke Growth Framework Alex presents the Hub and Spoke growth framework as a solo journal entry. In accordance with monologue scoring rules, all host and guest scores are 0.11:16–21:15 · Alex as informed peer 0/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy for The Plunge Alex outlines the customer acquisition plan and testing framework for his new business, The Plunge. With no guest present, all interaction scores are 0.21:15–29:18 · Alex as informed peer 0/10 Lenny Rachitsky’s Seven Growth Strategies and Case Studies Alex reviews Lenny Rachitsky's seven growth strategies and examines case studies like DoorDash, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Robinhood. All scores remain 0 in this solo segment.29:18–30:12 · Alex as informed peer 0/10 Conclusion and Listener Mailbag Call-to-Action Alex concludes the episode with a summary and a call-to-action for listener mailbag submissions. All scores are 0 for this closing monologue segment.1:54–9:07 · Guest teaching 0/10 How Morning Brew Acquired Its First Subscribers Alex Lieberman delivers a solo monologue detailing how Morning Brew acquired its first 1,000 subscribers. Because this is a monologue without guest interaction, all dynamic scores are set to 0.9:07–11:16 · Guest teaching 0/10 The Hub and Spoke Growth Framework Alex presents the Hub and Spoke growth framework as a solo journal entry. In accordance with monologue scoring rules, all host and guest scores are 0.11:16–21:15 · Guest teaching 0/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy for The Plunge Alex outlines the customer acquisition plan and testing framework for his new business, The Plunge. With no guest present, all interaction scores are 0.21:15–29:18 · Guest teaching 0/10 Lenny Rachitsky’s Seven Growth Strategies and Case Studies Alex reviews Lenny Rachitsky's seven growth strategies and examines case studies like DoorDash, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Robinhood. All scores remain 0 in this solo segment.29:18–30:12 · Guest teaching 0/10 Conclusion and Listener Mailbag Call-to-Action Alex concludes the episode with a summary and a call-to-action for listener mailbag submissions. All scores are 0 for this closing monologue segment.1:54–9:07 · Guest disagreement 0/10 How Morning Brew Acquired Its First Subscribers Alex Lieberman delivers a solo monologue detailing how Morning Brew acquired its first 1,000 subscribers. Because this is a monologue without guest interaction, all dynamic scores are set to 0.9:07–11:16 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Hub and Spoke Growth Framework Alex presents the Hub and Spoke growth framework as a solo journal entry. In accordance with monologue scoring rules, all host and guest scores are 0.11:16–21:15 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy for The Plunge Alex outlines the customer acquisition plan and testing framework for his new business, The Plunge. With no guest present, all interaction scores are 0.21:15–29:18 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lenny Rachitsky’s Seven Growth Strategies and Case Studies Alex reviews Lenny Rachitsky's seven growth strategies and examines case studies like DoorDash, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Robinhood. All scores remain 0 in this solo segment.29:18–30:12 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Conclusion and Listener Mailbag Call-to-Action Alex concludes the episode with a summary and a call-to-action for listener mailbag submissions. All scores are 0 for this closing monologue segment.1:54–9:07 · Alex pushing back 0/10 How Morning Brew Acquired Its First Subscribers Alex Lieberman delivers a solo monologue detailing how Morning Brew acquired its first 1,000 subscribers. Because this is a monologue without guest interaction, all dynamic scores are set to 0.9:07–11:16 · Alex pushing back 0/10 The Hub and Spoke Growth Framework Alex presents the Hub and Spoke growth framework as a solo journal entry. In accordance with monologue scoring rules, all host and guest scores are 0.11:16–21:15 · Alex pushing back 0/10 Customer Acquisition Strategy for The Plunge Alex outlines the customer acquisition plan and testing framework for his new business, The Plunge. With no guest present, all interaction scores are 0.21:15–29:18 · Alex pushing back 0/10 Lenny Rachitsky’s Seven Growth Strategies and Case Studies Alex reviews Lenny Rachitsky's seven growth strategies and examines case studies like DoorDash, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Robinhood. All scores remain 0 in this solo segment.29:18–30:12 · Alex pushing back 0/10 Conclusion and Listener Mailbag Call-to-Action Alex concludes the episode with a summary and a call-to-action for listener mailbag submissions. All scores are 0 for this closing monologue segment.

speaking balance: gold is Alex, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Alex 99% · guest 1%0:00 · Alex 99% · guest 1%3:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%3:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%6:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%6:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%9:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%9:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%12:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%12:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%15:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%15:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%18:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%18:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%21:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%21:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%24:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%24:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%27:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%27:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%30:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%30:00 · Alex 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 1:54 No combativeness in solo monologue

This is a solo host monologue episode where no guest participates or offers counter-arguments.

 Hardest push from Alex ▶ 1:54 No host pushback in solo monologue

Because there is no guest present, there is no opportunity for host pushback.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:54 No guest schooling in solo monologue

Alex speaks entirely solo throughout the episode, so no guest correction or schooling occurs.

 Alex holds their own ▶ 1:54 No host hit-back in solo monologue

With no guest challenging premises, no host hit-backs take place.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicAlex as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementAlex pushing backWhy
How Morning Brew Acquired Its First Subscribers 0000 Alex Lieberman delivers a solo monologue detailing how Morning Brew acquired its first 1,000 subscribers. Because this is a monologue without guest interaction, all dynamic scores are set to 0.
The Hub and Spoke Growth Framework 0000 Alex presents the Hub and Spoke growth framework as a solo journal entry. In accordance with monologue scoring rules, all host and guest scores are 0.
Customer Acquisition Strategy for The Plunge 0000 Alex outlines the customer acquisition plan and testing framework for his new business, The Plunge. With no guest present, all interaction scores are 0.
Lenny Rachitsky’s Seven Growth Strategies and Case Studies 0000 Alex reviews Lenny Rachitsky's seven growth strategies and examines case studies like DoorDash, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Robinhood. All scores remain 0 in this solo segment.
Conclusion and Listener Mailbag Call-to-Action 0000 Alex concludes the episode with a summary and a call-to-action for listener mailbag submissions. All scores are 0 for this closing monologue segment.

Statements from this episode (9)

Insight
Lieberman: Highly connected campus leaders make the worst brand ambassadors
“The people we thought would do best as ambassadors, the people who were most connected in their student body, who were in five different clubs, who were You know, student body president. They were actually the worst ambassadors because they were spread so thin…”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 6:21
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lieberman: Morning Brew campus ambassador program reached 250 ambassadors
“I think at its largest, we had like, 250 ambassadors at a hundred different schools. I think at its peak, we were getting somewhere between 15,020 thousand subscribers a semester.”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 6:51
Insight
Lieberman: Hubs provide high-leverage distribution access to groups of target users
“Spokes are your customers or your users. They're your power users. Hubs are the channels, whether they be digital or physical channels, that you can use to get access to many of your spokes at once, to many of your customers or your users at once.”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 9:51
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lieberman: Morning Brew grew early by pitching college classes of 75-500 students
“So, for example, for Morning Brew, it was classes and clubs. Like, those were our hubs in the beginning, right? Because we could go into an Econ one on one class, or we could go into an accounting class, And we could get access to between 75 to 500 spokes or c…”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 10:08
Assertion Supported
Lieberman: $1 Kickstarter backers convert 30-40x better than email leads
“They have found that someone who puts down a dollar is Is 30 to 40 times more likely to ultimately back the Kickstarter campaign than say someone who just puts in their email address”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 16:51
Disclosure
Lieberman pays an offshore video editor $30 per video
“I use monday.com for my content calendar. I use an offshore video editor who I pay 30 dollars a video.”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 19:43
Insight
Lieberman: Startups should focus deeply on at most three acquisition channels
“No successful business that he talked to found success from more than three strategies. So said differently, as I described earlier, have all of your strategies at the top of funnel. Whittle them down to the two or three that you think will work and stay focus…”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 24:01
Assertion Supported
Lieberman: DoorDash launched as paloaltodelivery.com with PDF menus and Stanford campus flyers
“The very first iteration of DoorDash. You know, the massive food delivery business was a website called paloaltodelivery.com, and it would have PDF menus Of restaurants in Palo Alto, and what Tony Zhu, who's the CEO of the business, would do is they printed a …”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 25:13
Assertion Partly supported
Lieberman: Robinhood gathered one million users pre-launch via a referral waitlist
“Robinhood, the, you know, free commission trading app was able to get one million users pre-launch and their process was dead simple, but it was highly effective.”
Alex Lieberman Mar 16, 2023 ▶ 27:54
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