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Your first customers for a stock research tool are already talking about stocks in public every day. They post their theses, complain about their screeners, and ask where to get better data. Your job is to find the ones with a specific pain your tool solves and talk to them one at a time.

All guidesFor founders of a stock research tool

1. Pick one investor type first

Retail dividend investors, small-cap value hunters, options traders and RIAs at small firms all want different things. Choose the one your tool serves best and ignore the rest for now. Write one sentence like: "For self-directed value investors who spend hours reading 10-Ks." Every channel below gets easier once this is clear.

2. Work the subreddits where research happens

Go to r/SecurityAnalysis, r/ValueInvesting, r/dividends, r/stocks and r/options. Sort by new and look for posts like "what screener do you use" or "how do you track insider buying". Reply with a useful answer first, and mention your tool only if it directly solves their question. Read each sub's self-promotion rules before posting anything.

3. Find people sharing write-ups and DM them

Search X for terms like "$ticker thesis", "10-K", or "my screener" and look at accounts posting long research threads with a few hundred followers. Do the same on Seeking Alpha by browsing recent contributor articles in your niche. Send a short note: "Read your thread on $XYZ margins. I built a tool that pulls that segment data automatically. Would you try it free for a week and tell me what's missing?"

4. Join investing Discords and Slack groups

Many stock newsletters and small investing YouTubers run free Discord servers with active research channels. Join a few, spend a week helping in the chat, then ask a moderator if you can share your tool with members for feedback. Moderators often say yes when you offer their community something free.

5. Reach small RIAs and independent advisors

Advisors at one to five person firms pay for research tools and have budget authority. Search LinkedIn for "Founder" or "Portfolio Manager" plus "Registered Investment Advisor" and filter by small company size. Message: "Do you do your own stock research or rely on your custodian's tools? I'm building something for small RIAs and want to hear what's slow in your process."

6. Answer questions on niche forums

Bogleheads, Value Investors Club discussions and the Seeking Alpha comment sections are full of people asking how to find data. Answer the exact question asked, show a screenshot of how you'd find it, and link your tool only when it saves them real time. One genuinely helpful answer can bring in users for months.

7. Charge early and talk to every user

Offer a founding price to your first 20 users instead of keeping it free forever. Get on a 15 minute call with each one and ask what they used before and what made them try you. Those answers tell you which channel and message to double down on.

8. Repeat daily

Set aside an hour each day to send ten personal messages and answer five public questions. Hulby, an AI cofounder, does this daily for founders by finding these conversations and drafting the outreach.

People asking this right now

Real, public posts from the last few weeks. Each one is somebody you could help today.

Mistakes to skip

  • Trying to serve day traders, long-term investors and advisors all at once.
  • Dropping links in subreddits without reading the rules and getting banned.
  • Promising returns or stock picks, which kills trust and can create legal trouble.
  • Giving the tool away free for months and never testing whether anyone will pay.

Want this done for your stock research 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 customers

Questions

Do I need a big data license before finding customers?

No. Talk to users first to learn which data they actually pay for, then license only that.

Should I start with retail investors or professionals?

Pick the group whose pain you understand best. Professionals pay more, retail is easier to reach in public.

Is it okay to promote my tool on Reddit?

Only where rules allow it, and only after you have been helpful there. Many subs have weekly threads for tools.

How many conversations before I get a paying customer?

It varies. Track your own numbers from the first 50 messages and adjust your channel and pitch from there.