[yankeeracer73]

Our first sell was a giveaway, but we absolutely made sure we could use their name as a credential in exchange for it being free. They agreed and all we talked about for 2 months was the fact we were working with these guys. Every email, every call, we mentioned their name.

It lent us some credibility and gave us something to talk about. It always makes businesses/institutions feel much better if they know someone else has already taken the risk.

Our first PAYING client came a few weeks later. During the process, we were pretty open about being early stage and surely got paid less than what we probably should have, but the openness plus the credential made them comfortable enough to pay a two person bootstrapped company and we were off and running.