Latest / The Founder's Journey with Fexingo: First-Time Entrepreneurs, Failures, and Lessons Learned / How a Founder Used a 50-Dollar Gift Card to Get First 100 Customers
Transcript
- Lucas: So you open a business. You've got a product you believe in. But nobody knows you exist. That first hundred customers — that's not a growth phase. That's a trust-building phase, one person at a time. Luna: And if you're bootstrapped, you can't just throw money at ads. So what do you do? Lucas: Today's story is about a founder who spent exactly fifty dollars to land those first hundred customers. Her name is Jenna — she started a small artisan soap company in Portland about two years ago. She had a great product, but she was invisible. Luna: Fifty bucks. That's less than a dinner out. How did she do it? Lucas: She used a fifty-dollar gift card — but not as a discount. She used it as a prize. Here's the setup: she went to a popular local coffee shop, the kind with a loyal morning crowd. She asked the owner if she could run a small promotion: anyone who bought a coffee that day could enter to win a fifty-dollar gift card to a local artisan shop — her shop. Luna: So the prize was her own product, essentially. Lucas: Exactly. The coffee shop owner said yes because it added value for his customers at zero cost to him. Jenna set up a small table near the register with a sign and a clipboard. To enter, customers just wrote down their name and email. Luna: Smart — she's building an email list. But fifty dollars for a list of emails — was that worth it? Lucas: She got about 120 email addresses that first day. But the real magic was the follow-up. She didn't just announce the winner and disappear. Two days later, she sent an email to everyone: 'Thank you for entering. The winner is Sarah M. But because you participated, here's a 15-percent-off code for your first order.' Luna: So she turned the losers into prospects. That's clever. Lucas: Right. And she made it personal. The email included a photo of her soap display and a short story about why she started making soap. She wasn't selling — she was introducing herself. Out of those 120 emails, 23 people placed an order within a week. Luna: Twenty-three orders from a fifty-dollar investment. That's a pretty good return. Lucas: But she didn't stop there. A month later, she ran the same promotion at a second coffee shop — same prize, same setup. That time she got 95 emails and 18 orders. And then she did it at a third shop. By the end of three months, she had over 300 email addresses and about 70 customers from those promotions alone. Luna: So the fifty-dollar gift card was really just a lead magnet. The cost was the prize, but the real work was the follow-up. Lucas: Exactly. She spent a total of a hundred and fifty dollars on three gift cards — fifty each — and got roughly 70 new customers. That's about two dollars and fourteen cents per customer acquisition cost. Compare that to Facebook ads, where a new customer in the artisan goods space can cost fifteen to thirty dollars. Luna: And the quality of those customers — they came from a trusted local coffee shop, so they already had some social proof. Plus they opted in voluntarily. Those are warm leads. Lucas: That's the key insight. Jenna wasn't buying attention — she was borrowing trust. The coffee shop had already built a relationship with its customers. When she stood there with a clipboard, she was an extension of that trust. And the fifty-dollar gift card felt like a real prize — not a discount gimmick. Luna: It's interesting because a lot of founders would think, 'I need a big marketing budget to get customers.' But she used something that cost less than a pair of sneakers. Lucas: And she proved the concept before scaling. She didn't go all-in on a big campaign. She tested one shop, saw it worked, then repeated it. That's the lean startup approach in action. Luna: And speaking of lean — this show itself is pretty lean. We don't run ads, we don't have sponsors. A handful of listeners chip in monthly through Buy Me a Coffee, and that's literally what funds making this many episodes. Lucas: Yeah, it's at Buy Me a Coffee dot com slash fexingo. If these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, that's the reason we can keep doing them ad-free. But back to Jenna. Luna: Right. So she got her first 70 customers this way. What about the remaining 30 to hit 100? Lucas: Word of mouth. Those 70 customers told their friends. She also added a small referral incentive — a free bar of soap for every friend who made a purchase. That brought in another 25 customers over the next two months. And the last five came from a local market she sold at. Luna: So the gift card was really the catalyst. It got the flywheel spinning. Lucas: Exactly. And I think there's a lesson here about specificity. She didn't offer a generic '10 percent off.' She offered a specific, tangible prize that felt like a treat. Fifty dollars at a local artisan shop — that's exciting. It's not just a discount; it's an experience. Luna: It also made people curious. 'What kind of soap costs fifty dollars?' turns into 'Let me check it out.' Lucas: Right. And her website was simple — just a Shopify store with good photos and clear descriptions. So when people clicked through from the email, they saw a professional operation. That built trust. Luna: What about the coffee shop owner? Did he get anything out of it? Lucas: She gave him a few free soaps for the staff break room, and she mentioned the coffee shop in her email newsletter. That was it. But the coffee shop saw increased foot traffic on promotion days — people came in specifically to enter the drawing. Luna: So it was a win-win. And she kept it simple. No complicated tracking, no software — just a clipboard and a follow-up email. Lucas: That's the beauty of it. She didn't overthink. She identified a partner with a built-in audience, offered something of value, and followed up personally. That's a formula that works in almost any local business. Luna: And it scales. You could do this with a bakery, a bookstore, a yoga studio. Lucas: Absolutely. The prize amount can vary. Maybe it's a twenty-five-dollar gift card for a smaller business. The key is making it feel like a real gift, not a coupon. Jenna's fifty-dollar card worked because fifty dollars at a soap shop feels substantial — it's not something you'd spend on a whim. Luna: So what's the takeaway for someone listening who wants to try this? Lucas: First, find a partner business that shares your ideal customer profile. If you sell handmade soap, a coffee shop is perfect — same demographic. Second, make the prize genuinely desirable. Not a ten-dollar discount, but a gift card that covers a real purchase. Third, collect emails and follow up within 48 hours with a personal story and a small incentive. And fourth, track everything — how many emails, how many orders, so you know your cost per customer. Luna: And be prepared to repeat it. Jenna did it three times. Each time she got slightly fewer emails, but the conversion rate stayed consistent. Lucas: Right. The law of diminishing returns applies. But for a first-time founder, this is a low-risk way to prove demand and build a customer base. Jenna's now at about 500 customers and growing. She still uses the gift card strategy occasionally, but now she combines it with social media ads. Luna: So the fifty-dollar gift card was the spark. It's a reminder that you don't need a huge budget — you need a smart strategy and a willingness to show up with a clipboard. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the kind of resourcefulness that defines the founder's journey. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back with another story next time.