Pre-event checklist
First-paying-customer checklist
The first paying customer is a one-time event. The 48 hours after the charge clears decide whether you have a customer or a refund. The seven steps below sequence the work — onboarding, follow-up, testimonial collection, and Stripe verification — into a single visible path.
Run before: Adding the customer to the Verified Builders directory
When: Within 48 hours of the first paying customer charge clearing.
Verified · editorial policy
The 7-step checklist
Step 1
Send a one-sentence personal thank-you within four hours
Not the receipt email — a separate one-sentence message from a real founder address. No template, no upsell, no signature graphic.
Done when: A real one-sentence email from the founder address has been sent within four hours of the charge, and is not the automated receipt.
Step 2
Verify the customer can actually use the product
Watch the access-delivery webhook fire. Confirm the customer landed on the right surface. If they bounced from the access link, fix the path before doing anything else.
Done when: The customer has loaded the post-purchase surface and stayed long enough to interact with it (analytics confirms a non-bounce session).
Step 3
Schedule the day-3 follow-up
A second personal message at the 72-hour mark, asking one specific question about whether the product is doing what the customer expected. Not 'how is it going?'
Done when: A day-3 follow-up email is drafted, named to this customer, and scheduled or queued to send.
Step 4
Document the customer profile
Name, role, company, where they came from (referrer or 'how did you hear about us'). One paragraph in your customer notes.
Done when: A customer-profile note exists with name, role, company, and acquisition source.
Step 5
Plan the testimonial path
Day 14 or after the first observable outcome, ask the customer for a one-sentence testimonial with a verifiable detail. Do not ask before the outcome lands.
Done when: A calendar event is set for the testimonial ask, dated to either day 14 or to the first observable customer outcome — whichever comes first.
Step 6
Verify Stripe shows the cycle as expected
Open Stripe Dashboard. Confirm the charge, the customer, and the subscription state (if recurring) match what you expected.
Done when: The Stripe Dashboard view of this customer matches the local app view to the cent and to the date.
Step 7
Add the customer to the verified-builder pipeline
If this customer is using your product to ship something themselves, log them as a candidate for the Verified Builders directory. Outcome verification happens in Stripe, not in survey responses.
Done when: The customer is listed in the verified-builder pipeline with a 'pending Stripe-verified outcome' status and an expected verification window.
Related Brunson terms
If a step fails, diagnose the element
Frequently asked
- What if the first customer asks for a refund within the 48 hours?
- Issue the refund without friction, then write down what they told you about why. The 'I refunded my first customer' moment is a learning event, not a failure. The reason they gave is more valuable than the $X you would have kept by stalling.
- Should I publish the first customer's testimonial immediately?
- No. Ask after the first observable outcome, not after the first charge. A testimonial collected on day 1 is less trustworthy than one collected on day 14 with a verifiable detail.
More checklists
Run the diagnostic on your live page
The free 90-second Launch Diagnostic labels which Brunson failure mode your page hits — Wrong Person, Weak Offer, or Weak Belief — so you know which checklist to run first.