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# Daily Lab: Who are my customers?
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/daily-lab-who-are-my-customers/
- Published: 2023-10-25T10:25:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-18T15:16:49.000Z
- Description: Who wants what you sell?
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, customers, demand, value, overdeliver, tradeoff, competition

Along with consulting, I spend a lot of time teaching new entrepreneurs how to determine, deliver, and demonstrate their value.

One of my roles is as a mentor for scientists (typically graduate students) who are looking to commercialize the innovation they’ve created in the lab.

Which means I get to hear *a lot* of questions about the first stages of starting a business. And the most common one is simply:

**“Who are my customers?”**

So here’s what I tell them:

**First, your best, earliest customers are going to be the people who *already want* what you have created.**

Don’t waste time, energy, or money trying to convince people of anything.

**Second, you’ll find those people by finding the folks who are *already buying* a similar or adjacent solution.**

Find the people who are making do with an inferior solution. Even if what you *sell* is new, the problem you *solve* isn’t.

**Third, demonstrate your ability to overdeliver in the areas they care about most.**

Identify the tradeoffs these customers are making, and how you can make them even clearer and more focused.

*That’s* how you find your customers. By finding the people who are already buying the next best thing to your product.

**And demonstrating that your solution is the right one for them.**

🧠

This post contains 100% organic content, no generative AI was used in its creation.