You have a product or service. You know it's good. But you have zero customers — or maybe a handful from your network — and you need to get to 100.

This isn't a guide about growth hacking or viral loops. This is the boring, effective work of finding people who need what you sell and getting them to pay you.

Why 100 Matters

100 B2B customers is the threshold where you go from "maybe this works" to "this is a business." At 100 customers, you have:

Most founders never get here — not because their product is bad, but because they never build a systematic way to find and convert customers.

Step 1: Define Your ICP (For Real This Time)

"Small businesses" is not an ICP. "Series A SaaS companies with 20-50 employees who don't have a dedicated ops person" is an ICP.

The tighter your definition, the easier everything else becomes. Your cold emails get better. Your targeting gets sharper. Your conversion rates go up.

The ICP worksheet

Answer these:

  1. Company size — How many employees? What revenue range?
  2. Industry/vertical — What sector? Be specific.
  3. Stage — Startup? Growth? Enterprise?
  4. Trigger event — What happens that makes them need you? (Funding round, new hire, product launch, regulatory change)
  5. Decision maker — Who signs the check? Title, seniority level.
  6. Current solution — What are they doing today instead of buying from you?

If you can't answer #4 (trigger event), your outbound will always feel random. The best ICPs are defined by timing, not just demographics.

Step 2: Build Your Prospect List

You have three options, from cheapest to fastest:

Option A: Manual research (Free, slow)

Best for: First 10-20 customers when you're validating the ICP. You learn a lot about your market by manually researching prospects.

Option B: Data tools ($50-300/month)

Best for: Customers 20-50. You've validated the ICP and need to move faster.

Option C: Done-for-you lists (Varies)

Best for: Customers 50-100. You know exactly who you want and need volume without the research time.

How many prospects do you need?

Work backward from your target:

Or, improve each variable:

Now: 100 customers / 8% close = 1,250 conversations / 20% reply = 6,250 emails / 50 per day = 125 days.

The math is the math. You can either send more volume or improve your targeting and messaging. The best founders do both.

Step 3: Cold Email That Gets Replies

Your first cold email isn't a sales pitch. It's a relevance test.

The anatomy of a working cold email

  1. Subject line — Short, lowercase, curiosity-driven. "quick question" outperforms "Revolutionary Solution for Your Business" every time.
  2. First line — Prove you did 10 seconds of research. Reference something specific about their company.
  3. Problem statement — One sentence about a problem they recognize.
  4. Your solution — One sentence about how you solve it. Not features — outcome.
  5. Social proof — One line. "Helped [similar company] do [specific result]."
  6. CTA — Low friction. "Worth a quick chat?" not "Book a 45-minute demo."

What most founders get wrong

Step 4: LinkedIn as a Force Multiplier

Cold email alone works. Cold email + LinkedIn works 2-3x better.

The combo play

When someone sees your name in their inbox AND on LinkedIn in the same week, you become real. Not spam — a person trying to reach them.

LinkedIn content as a trust builder

You don't need to be an influencer. Post 2-3x/week about:

When a prospect gets your cold email, they check your LinkedIn. If your last post was 6 months ago, you look sketchy. If you're consistently sharing insights, you look credible.

Step 5: The Referral Engine (Customers 50-100)

Once you have 30-50 happy customers, referrals should be 20-40% of your new business. But they won't happen automatically.

How to systematically generate referrals

  1. Ask at the right moment — After a win, not at random. "We just hit [milestone] together. Do you know 2-3 other [titles] who might be dealing with the same problem?"
  2. Make it easy — Don't ask them to write an intro email. Say "Can I draft something for you to forward?"
  3. Offer reciprocity — Not cash (feels transactional). Knowledge, introductions, help with something they care about.
  4. Create a referral moment — Monthly check-ins where you share results AND ask for intros.

Step 6: Track Everything

You can't improve what you don't measure. Track:

Review weekly. If reply rates drop, fix your targeting or messaging. If close rates drop, fix your sales process.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Finding your first 100 B2B customers is not a creative problem. It's a volume + consistency problem.

The founders who get there aren't the ones with the cleverest emails or the best product. They're the ones who send 50 personalized emails every single day, follow up relentlessly, and iterate based on data.

No hack replaces the work. But the right system makes the work 10x more efficient.

Start with 10 prospects today. Not tomorrow. Today.