Getting your first customers doesn't require a product. This founder signed up 100 restaurants and manually processed every order before writing a single line of code. Zhong Xu is the co-founder of Deliverect, a platform that connects delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash into one system for restaurants. He'd already had one exit - his previous company merged with Lightspeed, which IPO'd - but this time he took a radically different approach to finding his first customers. Instead of spending months coding, Zhong went out and signed up restaurants with nothing built. Then he turned his former competitors into distribution partners who brought in 100 new customers each per month. When COVID hit, he opened 10 offices in a single quarter. Today Deliverect serves 80,000 restaurants across 50 countries and is approaching $100M ARR. Stay for 35:16 where Zhong reveals why he thinks AI could turn his $100M platform into commodity infrastructure - and what he's doing about it. This episode is brought to you by: š Gearheart - Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free: https://saasclub.io/gearheart/book š ThreatLocker - Book a demo: https://saasclub.io/threatlocker/ š KEY LESSONS š ļø The Wizard of Oz Launch: Zhong signed up 100 restaurants and manually processed orders before writing code, proving that validating demand with zero product is faster and cheaper than building features nobody has asked for. š¤ The Competitor Distribution Play: Instead of selling direct, Zhong called CEOs of competing software companies and turned them into distribution partners - each bringing 100 restaurants per month to Deliverect. ā” The 10-Office Gamble: During COVID, Zhong opened 10 offices in one quarter to plant a flag in every market before local copycats could form - betting that being first mattered more than being ready. š° The $50 Floor: Zhong charged $50/month from day one and never offered free plans, because he learned that non-paying users stay silent while even small-paying customers give honest, useful feedback. šÆ The Intelligence Layer Race: With 80,000 customers and $100M ARR, Zhong is now racing to build AI-powered menu optimization before competitors commoditize the connectivity layer he spent 7 years building. ā±ļø TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction 01:06 What Deliverect does and how it works 04:04 80,000 restaurants and approaching $100M ARR 05:25 Zhong's father built a POS system from a C++ book 07:08 Building one of the first iPad POS systems 08:51 Where the idea for Deliverect came from 10:39 Why four co-founders and why distribution beats product 12:12 The Wizard of Oz MVP - manual orders for 100 restaurants 14:26 Do things that don't scale until you have volume 17:08 When they actually started building the product 19:02 Think about architecture early if you find product-market fit 20:23 Why losing early customers is not a real risk 22:27 13 years of domain expertise as an unfair advantage 24:05 Getting to $10M+ ARR in 2.5 years 26:26 POS partnerships as the core distribution channel 27:57 Making channel partnerships actually work 30:16 Integrating with DoorDash and Uber Eats 31:51 Pricing strategy - charge from day one and trade discounts for referrals 35:16 How AI is transforming the restaurant industry 37:26 The threat of becoming commodity infrastructure 38:46 Guardrailing AI in a real-world restaurant business 42:25 Lightning round 43:24 Book recommendations š§ Full Show Notes: https://saasclub.io/474 š Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email #SaaS #FirstCustomers #MVP #FounderStory