First-customer channels in founder stories on Reddit, 2011-2026

Share of 413 first-hand founder stories naming each channel that brought their first customers, by period and by B2B or B2C, from 22 startup subreddits on Reddit, 2011 to September 2026. Source: KissMyPost analysis of public Reddit posts. This dataset accompanies the KissMyPost study Where founders found their first customers. The method, charts and the full write-up are on that page. Files: first-customer-channels-by-period-2011-2026.csv: Channels by period, 2011 to 2026. Founder stories naming each first-customer channel in each of six periods, plus 2025-2026 and all-years weighted shares. first-customer-channels-b2b-vs-b2c.csv: B2B vs B2C. Stories naming each first-customer channel, for B2B and for B2C founders. Method: Random sample of 500 posts per period from 24,911 candidate posts in 22 founder subreddits; two language-model judges per post, a third on disagreements, hand check of 40 verdicts. Measured: Share of stories naming each first-customer channel, by period; Share of stories naming each first-customer channel, B2B and B2C. All files contain aggregates only, no individual posts or user names.