Thousands of cold emails. Zero replies. Eight months of rejection. Palash Soni and his co-founders couldn't land their first customers no matter what they tried. In this episode, founders will learn how they discovered UI—not features—was killing their sales, rebuilt everything in 5 weeks, and landed Drift as the deal that changed everything. Palash shares the brutal reality of finding first customers in enterprise SaaS: why early-stage startups wouldn't commit even though they said they loved the product, how giving equity to mid-level advisors unlocked critical intros, and the persistence it took to email Drift's founder three times before getting a response. Today, Goldcast has grown beyond $10 million ARR serving 400 customers including Salesforce, Zuora, and Lattice—proof that the struggle to find first customers can lead to enterprise success. 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Split-test outreach to find your first customers: Palash sent 200 emails split between two segments—one responded, one didn't. This revealed the real ICP before building. 📉 Listen when prospects reject you: For 8 months, people mentioned the UI looked bad. Palash dismissed it until zero traction forced a 5-week rebuild. 🚀 Persistence unlocks breakthrough deals: Palash emailed Drift's founder three times before getting a response. That single customer unlocked inbound leads. 💰 Willingness to pay reveals your real ICP: Startups wouldn't commit; larger companies signed annual contracts despite a half-built product. Follow the money. 🏢 Use advisors strategically for first customer intros: They gave equity to mid-level directors who could open doors—not executives too busy to help. 🤝 Invest in support as a growth channel: Word-of-mouth research revealed "great support" drove referrals, so they doubled the team to respond in 30 seconds. Chapters Introduction and favorite quote What Goldcast does and who it's for Revenue, team size, and funding ($10M+ ARR) Origin story at Harvard Business School Validating the idea with cold emails Split-testing outreach to find first customers The 8-month struggle to land first customers Why early-stage startups wouldn't commit The UI problem nobody wanted to hear Rebuilding the entire UI in 5 weeks Landing Drift as the breakthrough first customer How one customer unlocked inbound leads Finding the right ICP through willingness to pay Using advisors to unlock intros Growing from first customers to $1M ARR Running events about events as a growth channel The $5M ARR churn problem that forced a pivot Pivoting from events to video content platform Investing in support as word-of-mouth fuel Lightning round questions 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/420 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe