cuddlepuddle's first customer
We got our first paying customer with zero marketing. Someone just found us, asked for a session, and showed up. Here's what that felt like.
We didn’t run any ads. We didn’t post on social media. We didn’t pitch anyone. Someone just found cuddlepuddle.app, read through it, and sent a message asking to book a session.
That was the first customer.
How it happened
Our cuddler got a message. A real one — someone who had found the site, understood what it was offering, and wanted to try it. Before the session, they had a short conversation. Not a sales call. More of an introduction — what to expect, what the boundaries are, how the session flows, what professional platonic touch actually looks and feels like in practice.
Then the session happened.
I wasn’t there, obviously. But hearing about it afterwards was one of those moments where a project stops being theoretical. Someone needed something. We built a thing that connected them to someone who could provide it. Money changed hands. It worked.
The timeline
We went from idea to first paid session in under a month. That’s not because we moved fast or had some special process. It’s because the scope was right. A booking page, a therapist profile, a clear description of the service, a way to reach out. No unnecessary features. No elaborate onboarding. Just enough to communicate what this is and make it easy to take the next step.
The technical side was SvelteKit. The non-technical side — figuring out the right tone, the right words, what to emphasize and what to leave out — took longer and mattered more.
Why it felt significant
Lisbon has a lot of people who moved here from somewhere else. The social scene is active, but it’s surface-level in ways that can feel lonely. cuddlepuddle exists in the space between “I know people” and “I feel connected.” That’s a real gap, and it’s not a gap you can close with a networking event or a dating app.
The first customer wasn’t an early adopter or a tech person testing something out of curiosity. They were someone who wanted that connection and went looking for it. The fact that they found us and it worked — that was the whole point.
Building software is usually satisfying in an abstract way. You solve a problem, the code runs, the tests pass. This one was satisfying in a completely different way. A person is less lonely because we built this thing. That’s worth more than any metric.