Founder Fundamentals EP 4: Getting Your First 10 Customers with Agnes Lan

This Winter Founder Fundamentals session was about Getting Your First 10 Customers with Agnes Lan. It explored one of the most underestimated parts of early traction: learning how to sell before trying to scale. Agnes, framed early customer acquisition as a skills-building and clarity-building process, not a polished “funnel” exercise. With a background in engineering and a career rooted in revenue growth across complex, tech-driven environments, she positioned sales as a form of problem-solving and communication rather than persuasion. The session emphasized that founders can have a strong product and still stall if they delay selling, and that early customer conversations are often the fastest way to build confidence, sharpen positioning, and collect the market data that makes future growth possible.

The First 10 Is Not a Funnel, It’s a Learning Lab

Agnes opened with a key distinction: getting the first 10 customers is fundamentally different from building a repeatable, scalable sales machine. The early stage is not about automation, a perfect tech stack, or polished branding. It is about testing the message, hearing objections, learning who actually cares, and refining how the founder communicates value.

To make the point, she used a simple example: the lemonade stand. A kid can sell lemonade without a website, brand guidelines, or marketing spend because the pitch is clear, the context is right, and the ask is simple. That same logic applies to founders. Early traction comes from clarity and relevance - not complexity.

A recurring theme was that the first 10 should produce insight more than revenue. Those early conversations reveal what resonates, what confuses people, and what needs to change before time is spent scaling outreach.

Start Where Trust Already Exists

Agnes challenged founders to name 10 people they could reach out to tomorrow - not necessarily buyers, but people who love them, trust them, and will give honest feedback. The goal is to practice before pitching strangers, because early selling requires repetition, not perfection.

She highlighted that founders often underestimate how quickly networks can expand. Even if a founder feels they lack connections, proximity to a community changes the equation. A room of peers becomes an entry point to other networks, and traction often begins through second-degree connections rather than cold outreach.

The strongest early contacts are those who will do three things: give time, give honest feedback, and introduce the founder to the next relevant person.

A Great First Pitch Buys You the Next 30 Minutes

Agnes introduced a simple rule: the first 30 seconds earns the next 30 minutes. If the message is unclear, overly technical, or feature-heavy, people disengage quickly. If it is grounded in an understandable situation, people stay.

She emphasized that early sales messaging should sound human and story-based - not like a product spec sheet. People remember stories, not features. A strong founder pitch uses context to help the listener recognize themselves in the problem and feel the relevance immediately.

She offered a clear structure founders can use to tighten their message:

• Context: What is happening in the customer’s world?
• Problem: What is the friction or pain point?
• Value: How does the offering resolve it?
• Ask: What is the next step being requested?

This framework supports clarity, especially in early-stage selling where the objective is often participation and feedback rather than a hard close.

The First 10 Doesn’t Need “Perfect” Customers

Another key lesson was that the first 10 customers are rarely the ideal long-term segment. They are a testing ground. Founders should expect these early customers to shape the offer - similar to how a first group of lemonade buyers might influence sweetness, pricing, or where the stand should be placed next.

Agnes framed this as strategic: early buyers provide market data. They help founders identify:

• who buys quickly versus who hesitates
• what objections appear repeatedly
• what wording lands without explanation
• what price feels acceptable without negotiation

This data informs whether the founder should keep targeting the original segment or shift toward a more natural buyer.

Knowing When to Switch Segments

When asked how to recognize a shift in target audience - such as choosing between recruiters or job seekers - Agnes recommended testing both sides rather than guessing. Early-stage targeting is often a hypothesis, and the first 10 conversations help confirm where value is strongest and where willingness to pay exists.

She noted that some models require thinking in ecosystems: one segment may be the primary user while another segment funds the system. The right answer depends on where the economic incentive is strongest, what problems are urgent enough to pay for, and which message resonates consistently.

Price Is Not Just Math, It’s Perception

Agnes addressed pricing as a mix of market research and positioning. Founders often price based on cost plus margin, but customer willingness to pay is shaped by perceived value and context. She used a familiar example: the same bottle of water costs differently depending on where it is sold, because the situation changes the value.

Pricing becomes clearer through early conversations, especially when founders can connect features to outcomes and benefits. Stronger benefit articulation increases what customers are willing to pay, while unclear positioning forces pricing down.

GST/HST: When Registration Is Mandatory, Not Optional

The session also covered GST/HST obligations, starting with the $30,000 small supplier threshold. Once taxable revenue exceeds this amount in any 12-month period, registration becomes mandatory, not optional.

Saba walked through multiple scenarios to show how timing affects registration dates, tax collection, and remittance. A key warning was that failing to register on time does not eliminate liability. The CRA can retroactively assess GST/HST owed, even if the founder never collected it from clients.

Another crucial reminder: GST/HST collected is not business income. It belongs to the government and should never be spent.

Referrals Require Specificity

The session closed with a clear takeaway: early customers don’t just buy, they open doors. But referrals don’t happen automatically. Founders need to make specific, focused asks so others can easily connect them to the right people. Vague requests rarely lead to action.

The first 10 conversations aren’t just about closing sales, they’re about building a repeatable referral path and refining the pitch. By the end of that cycle, founders should communicate their value more clearly, anticipate objections, and recognize which segments respond fastest.

The core principle: you don’t need to be “ready” to sell. You become ready by selling. Early traction comes through practice, feedback, and iteration, so the 10th pitch is better than the first.

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About Founder Fundamentals

Founder Fundamentals is a 12-week workshop series hosted by YSpace and Black Enterprenurship Alliance and powered by City of Markham designed to equip you with essential entrepreneurial skills. Attend 9+ workshops to earn a Certificate of Completion and take the first step toward entrepreneurial success!