When we started our voice AI company 8 years ago, the first customers came from doing a ton of free consulting work. We'd reach out to companies in target industries and offer to analyze their customer service call data for free, then show them what voice AI could do with their actual data.
It felt like being taken advantage of sometimes, honestly. We'd spend weeks building custom demos and proof-of-concepts without any guaranteed return. But when you don't have a network in the industry, you have to do that kind of work to prove your credibility.
The breakthrough was realizing we weren't just giving away free work - we were learning what these companies actually needed vs what we thought they needed. Those free consulting projects taught us more about product-market fit than any survey could have.
By the time we had 10 real paying customers, we'd probably done free work for 30+ companies. The key was setting boundaries about when to transition from free to paid. You have to judge that timing yourself based on the relationship and how much value you're providing.
When we started our voice AI company 8 years ago, the first customers came from doing a ton of free consulting work. We'd reach out to companies in target industries and offer to analyze their customer service call data for free, then show them what voice AI could do with their actual data.
It felt like being taken advantage of sometimes, honestly. We'd spend weeks building custom demos and proof-of-concepts without any guaranteed return. But when you don't have a network in the industry, you have to do that kind of work to prove your credibility.
The breakthrough was realizing we weren't just giving away free work - we were learning what these companies actually needed vs what we thought they needed. Those free consulting projects taught us more about product-market fit than any survey could have.
By the time we had 10 real paying customers, we'd probably done free work for 30+ companies. The key was setting boundaries about when to transition from free to paid. You have to judge that timing yourself based on the relationship and how much value you're providing.