# Three-week helpful residency in ICP communities

> Spend a few weeks answering questions in the buyer's Slack or Discord rooms before mentioning the product at all.

- Canonical HTML: https://growth.iangoh.com/growth-ideas/three-week-helpful-residency-in-icp-communities/
- Source: [reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1qsvtbc/saas_founder_how_did_you_get_your_first_10100/)
- GrowthDex source hub: [Reddit /r/SaaS: SaaS Founder: How did you get your first 10–100 paying users?](/sources/reddit-r-saas-saas-founder-how-did-you-get-your-first-10-100-paying-user/)
- Last checked: 2026-05-30
- Rarity: epic
- Budget: free
- Channels: Slack, Discord, Communities
- Stages: community-led growth, 0-100, trust building, dark social


## Why this can grow

Private communities work when the founder behaves like a participant, not an ad unit. One r/SaaS operator said the first meaningful traction came only after about three weeks of helping in Slack communities and Discord servers where the target users already spent time. Then, when the founder finally mentioned the product, people asked to try it. That sequence matters because trust is built before the ask. It also gives the founder better language for the product, because the pain is heard in the buyer's own words instead of through a synthetic ICP document.

## Ian's take

From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. I would treat this as earning the right to be in the room, not dropping a campaign into a room. In community-led growth, the first job is to notice what people already care about, then bring a useful proof, tool, teardown, or question that makes the conversation better. I would run it small enough to learn quickly, then only scale the parts that real users repeat, save, reply to, or buy from. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.

## Action plan

1. Define one narrow startup segment where three-week helpful residency in icp communities can create a measurable lift.
2. Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Slack and Discord channel.
3. Use the evidence from reddit.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
4. Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
5. Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.

## Source-backed example

A founder in r/SaaS said three weeks of useful participation in Slack communities and Discord servers produced the first 15 users, with 8 converting to paid, while LinkedIn cold outreach converted around 5 percent.

## Adjacent tactics in the same lane

- [Channel-specific notification queues for external feedback](/growth-ideas/channel-specific-notification-queues-for-external-feedback/) - 2 shared channels, 1 shared stage
- [Adjacent-tool ecosystem DM prospecting](/growth-ideas/adjacent-tool-ecosystem-dm-prospecting/) - 1 shared channel, 2 shared stages
- [Early reply window before thread crowds](/growth-ideas/early-reply-window-before-thread-crowds/) - 1 shared channel, 2 shared stages
- [Problem-thread reply before funnel build](/growth-ideas/problem-thread-reply-before-funnel-build/) - 1 shared channel, 2 shared stages

## Read GrowthDex essays

Browse the plain-English essay index at [GrowthDex Blog](/blog/).

## Related GrowthDex essays

- [The waitlist should act like a working queue](/blog/the-waitlist-should-act-like-a-working-queue/) - community-led growth, waitlists, founder-led sales

## Advisory

If you want help turning this into a working growth system, Ian Goh offers advisory at https://iangoh.com/advisory.