In a simplistic form, I view the first one to two years of a startup as building a fairly basic product and constantly refining it until it uniquely meets the needs of a target group of customers. Once it’s providing real value to 10+ paying customers, then it’s time for phase two: building a customer acquisition machine. It’s hard enough making it from phase one to phase two that many entrepreneurs don’t even realize they need to shift their focus once they’ve found product/market fit to building a repeatable customer acquisition process. Working on the product, talking to existing customers, and refining what’s in place comes much more naturally to most entrepreneurs compared to obsessing over how to acquire substantially more customers every quarter.

Here are five quick steps to go from product / market fit focused to customer acquisition focused:

1. Decide that at least 10+ paying customers represent a good cross…