There are two tracks to consider -- are you targeting businesses or consumers with your startup (B2B or B2C)?

With business, it's about getting access to stakeholders and decision makers. With consumers, it's about getting traction and building momentum.

Offering something for free is a great way to start. It could be a report with data you've collected or analyzed yourself, or it could be a free online tool or open source software.

But you've still got to get noticed -- and that's different for each group of customers. So, it's a good idea to start by identifying the customers you want to reach. And then reach out to them directly.

It's ok to cold call or run targeted ads to them, even if that's not scalable. What you're trying to do here is prove your market -- do you have the right solution -- and are you positioning it in the right way to the right people. And who knows, you might get lucky and find (and convince) an influencer that you've got the right solution.

Ultimately it comes down to finding those influencers. Those are the people who are early adopters -- experimenters -- who will share their experience and influence others.