Reddit for Your First 100 Customers (and Where It Stops Working)

Reddit is a good place to find your first customers, roughly the first 10 to 100, if you post useful stories with proof in small, relevant communities and stay within each subreddit's rules. It is not a channel that scales. Elephas grew on Reddit for six months, then saw diminishing returns and moved to SEO. The host of these interviews says the same thing plainly: Reddit gets you feedback and early customers, not your thousandth.

We transcribed the Starter Story interviews with transcribe.so and searched them by speaker and timestamp, so every quote below links to the moment it was said. Think of this as notes from the friend who actually watched the whole thing. Revenue and view counts are self-reported by the founders. Disclosure: we sell a transcription service, and we are not affiliated with Starter Story; links go to their original videos. This is part three of the Founder playbooks series.

What we left out. Some founders in these episodes also described tactics we do not recommend and do not cover here: upvote groups, multiple or backup accounts, ways of getting around bans or post removals, and posting the same thing across many subreddits at once. They break Reddit's rules or fake engagement. Everything below works with one honest account.

In the interviews we read in November 2026, Elephas said Reddit took it from zero to $3,000 a month in recurring revenue, GojiBerry reported about $30,000 a month with its first 100 customers from Reddit, and App Alchemy about $17,000 a month.

What kind of Reddit post brings customers?

Every founder here describes the same shape: a story or useful lesson first, proof that it is real, and the product only after that.

Elephas, a Mac AI assistant, built its posts around a short video demo of one feature, framed as a problem a friend had and the feature built to fix it, with a free trial and a request for feedback at the end. Its cofounder's reasoning: "Reddit is a very smart audience. They hate marketers. They hate being sold to." (06:39). Explaining why you built something reads as conversation, not promotion. The feedback from one of those posts shaped what became the product's main feature.

GojiBerry, a lead-finding tool, used titles that tell a story with a result in them. One post, about paying five influencers to promote the product and what $1,250 got them, reached about 160,000 views and 543 upvotes, sent about 2,000 visitors and brought an estimated 10 to 15 clients (04:36). Another, about failing an accelerator interview, reached about 179,000 views. His point is that you do not need a success to share: "you can turn any event happening in your life into a Reddit post" (04:36).

App Alchemy, an AI tool for mobile app designs, showed a post that worked and one that did not (05:36). The winner opened with a catchy headline, gave a case study of a successful app, and mentioned the product near the end. The loser put the product in the headline and listed its features. Its founder's diagnosis: "people don't care. They want to get some value first." (05:36)

How do you find the right subreddits?

Elephas's cofounder starts with a list of at least 15 subreddits where his customers spend time, and says subreddits with more than about 5,000 members are enough (08:19). Smaller communities often work better: niche audiences, simpler rules, and moderators who want more good posts.

App Alchemy's founder uses the community targeting screen inside Reddit's ad tool to find related subreddits, without paying for any ads (05:36). Type one community related to your product, and the tool suggests more.

How often should you post on Reddit?

Slowly. Both founders who gave a number pointed to restraint:

• Elephas: one subreddit a day, with the copy adjusted each time, and never every subreddit on the same day, because audiences overlap and people notice (08:19).
• App Alchemy: two to three posts a week as a rule of thumb, because more than that gets accounts banned (05:36).

Before posting at all, use the site. App Alchemy's founder notes that brand-new accounts get filtered, and GojiBerry's cofounder spends the first 7 to 14 days only commenting and taking part before he posts anything (07:57). After posting, he replies to every comment, which keeps the conversation going and tells him what readers care about.

Elephas also tagged every link it posted with the feature, the date and the subreddit, so it could tell which posts sent signups (08:19).

What does doing the work in public look like?

Supademo, which makes interactive product demos, found a version of Reddit marketing that skips the post entirely. Its founder offered in threads on Reddit and Indie Hackers to build a free demo for any founder who posted their product's link, then replied in the thread with the finished demo (07:32). Other readers saw the demos piling up, clicked them, and either asked for one or signed up to make their own. The work was the marketing, and everyone in the thread could see it.

Where does Reddit stop working?

Elephas used Reddit to go from zero to $3,000 a month in six months, then hit diminishing returns and moved its effort to SEO (03:48). Moderators later removed some of its best posts, which cut the engagement they still got (06:39). The host of the GojiBerry episode summed up the limit: "Reddit is not a platform to get scale." (14:44). He sees it as the place for the first ten to one hundred customers and honest product feedback, not the first thousand.

The feedback is the part founders value most. Elephas's cofounder said there is no benchmark for a good post, with some posts getting no upvotes and a few reaching three or four hundred, but the comments tell you what real people think of a new product (10:39). When the comments turn negative, GojiBerry's cofounder answers with proof and moves on (10:38).

What to copy

• Lead with a story or a lesson, add proof, mention the product last.
• One feature per post, shown in a short video. Elephas built its main feature from the replies.
• Find small subreddits with the ad tool's targeting screen. No ad spend needed.
• Use the site before you post. Comment for a week or two first.
• Post slowly. One community a day at most, or two to three posts a week.
• Tag every link so you know which post and which subreddit sent each signup.
• Offer to do the work in public. Supademo's free demos turned a thread into a showroom.
• Plan your next channel early. Every founder here moved on from Reddit once it plateaued.
• Skip the shortcuts. No upvote groups, no extra accounts, no getting around bans.

If you want to read these episodes yourself, our free YouTube transcript tool gives you a timestamped transcript of any public video. Part one covers free tools as an SEO engine, the channel Elephas moved to after Reddit, and part four covers selling through partner audiences.

Frequently asked questions

Can you get your first 100 SaaS customers from Reddit?

Yes, according to several founders here. GojiBerry says its first 100 customers came from Reddit, and Elephas grew from zero to $3,000 a month there. Both describe Reddit as an early channel, not one that scales.

How do you post on Reddit without being banned for self-promotion?

Follow each subreddit's rules, use the site before you post, lead with a useful story or lesson, mention your product late, and post slowly. App Alchemy's founder keeps to two or three posts a week, and Elephas posts in one subreddit a day.

Which Reddit tactics should you avoid?

Avoid upvote groups, multiple or backup accounts, getting around bans or removals, and posting the same thing in many subreddits at once. They break Reddit's rules, and we left them out of this guide.

When should you move on from Reddit?

When returns flatten or moderators start removing your posts. Elephas hit that point after about six months and moved to SEO, which became its main growth channel.