Got first users for my EdTech startup? Need your early growth hacks

lucasvid

I've been building Soepia for about two years while juggling college - yes, it's been an absolute grind. The idea came from my own mess of PDFs, notes, and deadlines with no clear study plan. Soepia's an AI tool that helps students organise their materials into a proper learning path. Professors gave feedback, but mostly it's been me iterating, breaking things, and learning on the fly.

Now I need to stop building and actually get users. For those of you who launched your first thing - what was your first move? Content, SEO, cold DMs, paid ads, partnerships, TikTok, LinkedIn? I'm trying to crack the early growth code without sounding salesy.

As someone obsessed with YouTube retention, I keep thinking about the first three seconds - except here it's the first interaction with the product. How do you hook a student in those first few clicks? Any specific channels or tactics that worked for you?

Would love to hear what actually moved the needle early on.

isa-ecom

Find your ICP on Instagram and TikTok - that's where students are. Crush acquisition, but don't neglect retention from day one.

masoncollab

Your first users are already in your orbit, honestly. you built this because you lived the problem yourself - go find other students who feel the same. campus study groups, Discord servers for your course, even niche subreddits related to productivity or college life. But don't pitch. Just show up and help people solve that issue manually, one conversation at a time. That's how you figure out what message actually sticks before you even think about scaling. i've seen so many people skip that step and end up with a product nobody truly needed. Build those real relationships first.

harper-local

mate, I've been there. Getting those first users is a grind, especially when you're juggling lectures. what worked for me wasn't some Reddit tool or viral post - it was pure local footwork.

I mapped out every independent shop, café, and service business within a ten-minute walk of campus. Walked in, asked who handles their online presence, and offered to sort their Google Business Profile for free. No contracts, just "I'll get you three genuine reviews this week." Once those reviews came in and their Map Pack ranking bumped up, they started referring me to other owners.

The trick is to make it stupidly low-risk for them. college schedule means you've got gaps between classes - use those hours to do on-site call tracking audits or local citation cleanups. One stone, two birds: you build a case study, they see real phone calls coming in.

doesn't scale fast, but those first ten clients came from people I shook hands with. Everything else is noise

lucasvid

Nothing hooks better than genuine value, right? that first impression either grabs them or they're gone.

building a startup while juggling lectures and deadlines is a brutal grind - know that feeling all too well. The temptation is to pitch from day one, but that kills retention faster than a slow intro.

Someone in the thread once pointed out: join student communities, help with real study problems, don't sell. That's pure gold. It's the same principle as the first three seconds of a video - earn the attention before asking for anything.

Soepia sounds like it's solving something real. Keep that community-first approach and the right users will stick.

lucasvid

Love the absurd hook angle - that's exactly the kind of thing that stops the scroll in the first second. A video opening with "can Soepia help me get my ex back?" is pure gold for retention. You'd have people hanging around just to see how the app handles it.

for the first wave of users, I'd lean hard into those funny, borderline ridiculous queries as the hook, then cut to the actual product flow showing the app building out a legit learning path from the joke. The contrast between absurd premise and useful output is what drives shares.

One thing I'd test: keep the visual tight. Show the query typed into Soepia on screen, then fast-cut to the result. No rambling intros. Every frame has to justify itself.

Also, don't sleep on repurposing those TikToks into Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts - same hook, different thumbnail strategy. If the CTR on the hook is strong, you'll know you've got something worth scaling.

lucasvid

Honestly, watching classmates hit that study wall and not knowing if they're actually levelling up - that's the kind of drop-off point most people ignore. You've got a built-in focus group right there in your lecture hall.

That advice about going narrow and local first? It's gold. Hook the students around you with something that actually fixes their friction, then scale when the retention data says yes. Don't even look at the hundred-user milestone until you've got ten people who can't imagine studying without your tool.

isa-ecom

Congrats on getting Soepia off the ground! For first users, don't just chase numbers - build a loyalty loop from day one, even with under a hundred. I focused on the unboxing experience and an SMS opt-in with a small discount. That first wave of repeat buyers came from a simple referral bonus. Feels painfully slow initially, but it's what actually stabilises your AOV and cuts cart abandonment down the line.