1. Pick one painful job, not a market
Write one sentence naming who has the problem and what it costs them. Example: "DAO treasury managers spend hours each month reconciling multisig transactions for their reports." Other good targets are protocol founders tracking token unlocks, OTC desks chasing wallet labels, and validators watching slashing risk. If you cannot name the job title, you cannot find the buyer.
2. Find buyers where they already complain
Search Twitter/X for "anyone know a tool for" plus your keyword, such as "multisig", "token unlock" or "tax lots". Read the governance forums of DAOs like Gnosis, Aave and ENS for treasury and ops posts. Check Discord channels named #dev-support or #treasury, and the hiring pages at web3.career for roles like "Treasury Ops" or "Protocol Analyst" whose duties match your tool. List 30 named people before you write a single message.
3. Send a short, specific DM
Do not pitch the product. Name their problem and offer to fix it by hand. Example: "Saw your forum post on monthly treasury reports. I'm building a tool that turns a Safe's transactions into a categorized CSV. Can I do your next report for you this week? If it saves you time, it's $300." Send 10 a day on Twitter/X, Telegram or the forum's DM feature.
4. Set a real price, paid up front
Charge for the result, not the software. Good starting offers: $300 for a one-off done-for-you report, $500 to $1,500 for a founding-customer deal with 6 months of access, or $99 to $299 a month for a small team. Crypto teams pay vendors all the time. A price under $50 tells them you are a hobby project.
5. Use exact words when they say yes
Ask for payment before the work starts. Say: "Great. Founding price is $750 for six months, paid up front. That locks the price and gets you direct access to me for features. I can take USDC on Base or Ethereum, or card through Stripe. Which works?" Then stop talking and wait.
6. Make paying easy and on the record
Send a one-page invoice with your wallet address, the amount, what they get, and the delivery date. Accept stablecoins to a dedicated wallet so you can track it cleanly, and offer Stripe for teams that need a card receipt. Send a test transaction or confirm the address over a second channel, because a wrong address cannot be undone.
7. Deliver by hand, then automate
Do the first jobs with scripts, Dune queries, spreadsheets and your own hours. Note every step you repeat. Those steps are your real product roadmap, and the customer is paying you to discover them.
8. Turn one customer into the next three
After delivery, ask: "Was this worth $750? Who else in your DAO or portfolio deals with this?" Founders and ops people in crypto know their peers well, so one warm intro beats 50 cold DMs. Hulby, an AI cofounder, does this prospecting and outreach every day for a founder.
Mistakes to skip
- Offering free beta access instead of asking for money, so you never learn if anyone would pay.
- Pitching to anonymous Discord crowds instead of named people with a job title and a budget.
- Launching a token or points program before anyone pays for the tool.
- Waiting for a polished UI when the buyer only wants the output.
Want this done for your crypto tool, every day?
Hulby finds the people asking for what you built, writes every reply and email, and keeps you on it until they pay. Free to start.
Find my first customersQuestions
Will people really pay for something unfinished?
Yes, if you sell the result and do the work by hand. They pay to solve their problem now, not for your software.
Should I accept crypto or fiat?
Both. Offer USDC on a cheap chain and Stripe for teams that need card receipts. Make the choice theirs.
What if they ask for a discount?
Trade, do not cut. Offer a longer term or a case study in return for the founding price, and keep the headline number.
How many messages until the first sale?
There is no fixed number. Send 10 targeted messages a day, track the replies, and change your offer if no one engages after a week.