If you’re building a new B2B product from zero, you’ve heard the advice: “Focus on your ICP. Say no to the wrong customers.”
Great advice.
Except when you’re starting out, you have no idea who the “right” customers actually are.
The Theory vs. The Reality
The theory is clean. Define your Ideal Customer Profile or ICP. Target them relentlessly. Disqualify anyone who doesn’t fit.
This makes sense after you’ve found product-market fit. You know what works. You know who pays. You know who churns.
But before that? Your ICP is a hypothesis. And you can’t validate a hypothesis without data or experiences.
The Problem with Being Selective Too Early
When you’re at literal zero – no customers, no revenue, no validation – being selective sounds smart. But it creates a different problem.
How do you know if someone fits your ICP without trying them? The nuances of fit aren’t obvious until you work with real customers.
You think you know. You write down criteria. Company size. Industry. Budget. Team structure.
Then reality shows up and proves you wrong.
What I Learned Building Ziply
Building Ziply from scratch taught me that “wrong” customers aren’t always wrong. Sometimes they’re your best teachers.
Here’s what happens when you let early customers in, even if they don’t perfectly fit your imagined ICP:
1. They validate what actually works
I offered Ziply free to early contacts. Friends, former colleagues, acquaintances who showed interest.
Were they all perfect fits? No.
Did they matter? Absolutely.
They found the bugs. They got confused by flows I thought were obvious. They told me what features were missing and which ones were pointless.
Some of those “test” customers are paying customers today. Without them, we’d still be fixing basic usability problems instead of growing revenue.
2. They reveal the real patterns
We thought we knew our ICP. Mid-size companies. Marketing teams. Budget for content tools.
Turns out, that wasn’t specific enough.
We learned the hard way that companies without a full-time content marketer weren’t ready for us. They wanted the results but didn’t have the process to use the product consistently.
That’s a nuance you can’t spot in theory. You only see it by working with customers who struggle.
3. They extend your runway
Let’s be honest about the money part.
Yes, some early revenue is “bad revenue.” Customers who will churn because they’re not a real fit.
But if you’re bootstrapped or low on funding, even small revenue matters. That extra month of runway might be the difference between figuring out your product and shutting down.
I’m not saying chase bad revenue forever. I’m saying it buys you time to learn what good revenue looks like.
So When Do You Start Saying No?
This is the real question.
You can’t be picky at zero. But you can’t say yes to everyone forever either.
The turning point comes when you start seeing patterns:
- Which customers get value quickly vs. which ones struggle
- Who renews vs. who churns
- What company characteristics predict success
For us, it took about 15-20 customers before the patterns became clear. Before that, every customer felt like a unique case.
Once you see the patterns, you can start being selective. Not because a framework told you to, but because you have evidence.
For Product Managers in Larger Companies
If you’re a product manager launching something new inside an existing company, this applies to you too.
You might have more resources than a founder. But you still need to figure out who actually wants what you’re building.
The same principle holds: your initial customer criteria are guesses. You need real users to validate or change those guesses.
The advantage you have is access to existing customers. Use them. Don’t wait for “perfect fit” customers to volunteer. Go find people willing to try something new and give honest feedback.
The Bottom Line
The advice to focus on your ICP isn’t wrong. It’s just premature.
At the very beginning, your job isn’t to disqualify customers. It’s to learn fast enough to know who to disqualify later.
The real question isn’t whether to disqualify early customers. It’s how long till you can be selective.
Curious how other B2B founders handled this.
Did you entertain some “wrong” customer early on?
I’d love to hear your experience in the comments.
