Just landed our first pilot customer - 6 months, custom rollout 🎉

After a year of building in the dark and countless cold calls, I finally got the "yes" I've been waiting for.

Yesterday's call ended with: "Let's move forward with a 6-month pilot program."

Context:
BasinCheck is an oil & gas safety audit tool for SMB contractors in the Permian Basin. I'm a marketer who fell down the vibe coding rabbit hole - spent 2 months building this from scratch with Next.js and Postgres.

What happened:

• This was our second discovery call with a mid-size contractor (can't name them due to NDA)

• They deal with the exact pain point BasinCheck solves: time-consuming OSHA compliance for field crews

• They want customized onboarding and a phased rollout across their teams

• 6-month pilot to prove ROI before full commitment

What's next:

• Building out their custom onboarding flow this week

• Need to nail the implementation or this dies fast

• Pressure is real but exciting

The reality check:
This isn't $1 MRR yet (pilot starts in a few weeks), but it's the first real validation that someone will actually pay for this thing. Going from "nice product" to "we'll sign a contract" felt like crossing a chasm.

If you're grinding on your micro-SaaS - the calls that feel like they're going nowhere? Keep taking them. One of them will say yes.

What was your first pilot/customer moment like? Any advice for not screwing this up?