What creative ways did you use to onboard design partner customers? I will not promote

Im building a startup in the DevOps space. We’ve got a solid MVP, and I’m looking to bring on a few design partners for feedback and validation before I turn it into a paid product. I’ve been doing some cold outreach, but I’m getting little to no response, and I’m starting to lose patience. Funny enough, we’re definitely getting attention from competitors, others in the space, and even investors but we still have no customers. Question how is everyone else getting their first customers or design partners? s