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AppSumo
SaaS B2B & B2C

AppSumo is a platform that offers entrepreneurs discounted lifetime deals on business software and digital tools.

appsumo.com · Founded 2010 · 37 public sources · Updated 2 days ago

Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 37 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →

How AppSumo Grew

Daily deals site offering discounted lifetime software for entrepreneurs

How did AppSumo grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

AppSumo grew by partnering with up-and-coming software companies to offer the latest technology for a limited time. They leveraged organic social media, gaining backlinks, mentions, and word-of-mouth buzz to increase visibility. Great customer service characterized by a fun, friendly, and authentic approach helped build trust with customers. AppSumo also expanded its marketing efforts through advertising, affiliate programs, and optimizing conversion rates.

Channels

13 channels · grouped by how AppSumo grows

  • Organic social media

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “Featured in...Helpingentrepreneurssince 2010$550Min savings for our community$113Min direct profits for partners & affiliates1.5MSumo-lingsdiscovering the latest B2B tools$10Mspent on advertising partner products”
    medium
    Show 2 more quotes
    “Maybe it's posting online. Maybe it's posting a blog. Maybe it's putting something on social media. Maybe it's even posting on your Facebook. Hey, is anyone here interested in vacuums?”
    medium
    “We gained more backlinks, mentions on social media, and word-of-mouth buzz.”
    medium

  • AppSumo Launch

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “the AppSumo experience has been incredible for me as a marketing channel ... They were able to let me tap into a user base of 730,000+ people, many of whom are exactly my target market, and have now turned into satisfied customers. It’s unlikely that I would have ever been able to connect with th...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “We made $200k in sales on AppSumo in 60 days. Here’s my honest review of selling my AI B2B SaaS product, Octolens , through AppSumo Select .”
    high

  • Direct sales

    · 1 mention
    “And I just worked on this show site, this site, for so long, and it was like, the best I ever got was 50 bucks a month. So all I'm saying here is, if you understand what it would take to make a million dollars cash... Now, I would see, can I get four people? I would get my neighbor, and then I'd ...”
    high

  • Affiliate program

    · 1 mention
    “So these Facebook groups would go and get deals, promote it in their thing, and then people would buy it. ... and we made exclusivity with the people that would come on us. ...be affiliates of us. So we would actually pay them to promote the deals.”
    high

  • Partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “We partner with up-and-coming software companies to bring you the latest tech for a limited time.”
    medium

  • Referral Program

    · 1 mention
    “Oh, I manually DM people on LinkedIn, or I did a referral, or I reached out to my network.”
    medium

  • Side project marketing

    · 1 mention
    “And so our number one original is Tidy Cow, which is a cow only alternative. ... It's our number one acquisition channel, which is our own products.”
    high

  • LinkedIn

    · 1 mention
    “Post online. Post on your LinkedIn. I'm going to start a vacuum thing. Great. No one replies. Okay. But I think the fantasy of I create a website. I put all this WordPress widgets on it. I have affiliate ads on it.”
    high

  • Personal network

    · 1 mention
    “Oh, I manually DM people on LinkedIn, or I did a referral, or I reached out to my network.”
    medium

  • Video content

    · 1 mention
    “I could post a video on YouTube. Okay. I'm getting somewhere. ... That's how I felt. Like when I started my YouTube channel, I just started with my phone shirtless and now, you know, there's a studios and there's producers who are, you know, there's all this different stuff there, but you have to...”
    high

  • Advertising on social media

    · 1 mention
    “For AppSumo, we had areas that worked, like ads. We tested it. It worked. ... That's scaling out our ads...”
    high

  • Backlinks

    · 1 mention
    “A side bonus: AppSumo is a great website to have a backlink from! Similar to Product Hunt, launching on a very reputable site like AppSumo means your own website improves in domain rating. We went from 10 to 23 DR on Ahrefs during our AppSumo campaign”
    high

  • Word of mouth

    · 1 mention
    “We gained more backlinks, mentions on social media, and word-of-mouth buzz.”
    medium

How 3,327 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — AppSumo’s highlighted.
  • Social media
    64% ◀
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    63% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    58% ◀
  • Email
    47%
  • Community
    37%
  • Content/Inbound
    35% ◀
  • Partnerships
    32% ◀
  • Events
    24%
  • Paid ads
    23%
  • Outbound/Sales
    19% ◀
  • Press/PR
    17%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    12% ◀
  • Podcasting
    4%
  • Influencer partnerships
    3%
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