By no means early birds (10)

'early birds' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'by no' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'by' could be 'at' and 'at' is located in the answer.
'no' could be 'o' (resembles 0 - 'no' can mean 'zero') and 'o' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'means' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?