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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 35 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 →
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How Baremetrics Grew

Subscription analytics tool for SaaS businesses

How did Baremetrics grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Baremetrics grew primarily through SaaS content marketing, where the founder spent significant time writing honest founder stories and publishing useful articles that resonated with entrepreneurs, leading to great traffic and organic sharing. The content often went viral on platforms like Hacker News and Product Hunt, which helped attract new customers without paid promotion. Building in public by publishing every revenue number transparently also contributed to growth and became part of the story that attracted attention. Additionally, word-of-mouth sharing on Twitter and other founder communities played a key role in spreading awareness and acquiring customers.

Channels

15 channels · grouped by how Baremetrics grows

  • Word of mouth

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “Twitter was the medium, and the real mode was word-of-mouth. ... What made this particular solution conducive to sharing (and what grew our customer base completely by word-of-mouth) was the immediacy of the solution.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “Twitter was the medium, and the real mode was word-of-mouth. ... What made this particular solution conducive to sharing (and what grew our customer base completely by word-of-mouth) was the immediacy of the solution.”
    high
    “The content spread organically because SaaS founders are quick to share useful posts, creating a self-perpetuating distribution loop on Reddit, Hacker News, and other founder communities.”
    medium

  • Organic social media

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “My secret weapon, and source for the large majority of Baremetrics’ first customers, was Twitter.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “My secret weapon, and source for the large majority of Baremetrics’ first customers, was Twitter.”
    high
    “The result is a self-perpetuating content engine where founders share his posts on Hacker News, Reddit, and Twitter, bringing in new customers without any paid promotion.”
    medium

  • Content marketing

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “his number one customer acquisition channel was not ads, outbound, or partnerships. It was SaaS content marketing - but not the kind most founders think of. In this episode, Josh explains why he hates the term "content marketing," how spending 25% of his time writing honest founder stories drove ...”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “Content I did a big push on publishing content that I thought would be useful to other entrepreneurs, and it paid off. I made a concious effort to not write generic junk that anyone could write, and instead focused solely on the experiences I’ve had that I felt would resonate with other small bus...”
    high
    “First: Content I did a big push on publishing content that I thought would be useful to other entrepreneurs, and it paid off. I made a concious effort to not write generic junk that anyone could write, and instead focused solely on the experiences I’ve had that I felt would resonate with other sm...”
    high

  • Hacker News

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “Three made it to the frontpage of Hacker News (if you care about that stuff), and one of those added $1500 in new MRR in 48 hours.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “In 2014, a blog post titled, How Barometrics Makes Money, went viral on Hacker News and Product Hunt.”
    medium

  • Partnerships

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “Second: Buffer deal You can read all the details there, but the gist of it is that we partnered with Buffer to have them use Baremetrics and make their dashboard public. That just went live two days ago and in that time has added roughly $1500 in net new MRR.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Second: Buffer deal ... we partnered with Buffer to have them use Baremetrics and make their dashboard public. That just went live two days ago and in that time has added roughly $1500 in net new MRR.”
    high

  • Building in public

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “It took three years of working nights and weekends, writing blog posts, answering questions on forums, and building in public before he hit $500K in ARR.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “And the kicker is, from the very beginning, he published every single revenue number publicly. A live dashboard on the Barometrics site showing exactly how much money the company was making. Right. That transparency became the story. In 2014, a blog post titled, How Barometrics Makes Money, went ...”
    medium

  • Thought Leaders

    · 1 mention
    “I mean, like, I think founders as a sort of a market, founders in general are really good about sharing stuff. And so if they find something that's super useful, they're super quick to share it themselves. So it kind of self perpetuates.”
    medium

  • Dedicated (Stand Alone) Emails

    · 1 mention
    “Join the thousands of subscribers learning about how we’re helping startups grow. Industry insights delivered right to your inbox”
    medium

  • Podcasting

    · 1 mention
    “Each blog post was repurposed as a short podcast episode (under 10 minutes), creating an additional distribution channel with minimal extra effort.”
    medium

  • Earned media

    · 1 mention
    “Josh spends about 25% of his time on SaaS content marketing, publishing weekly on Wednesdays, and supplements each article with a short podcast episode. The result is a self-perpetuating content engine where founders share his posts on Hacker News, Reddit, and Twitter, bringing in new customers w...”
    medium

  • Product Hunt

    · 1 mention
    “In 2014, a blog post titled, How Barometrics Makes Money, went viral on Hacker News and Product Hunt. Pigford showed revenue growing from zero to $3,000 a month in the first few months. People loved it. It was almost like reality TV for SaaS.”
    medium

  • Online Community

    · 1 mention
    “It took three years of working nights and weekends, writing blog posts, answering questions on forums, and building in public before he hit $500K in ARR.”
    high

  • Community forum

    · 1 mention
    “Three made it to the frontpage of Hacker News (if you care about that stuff), and one of those added $1500 in new MRR in 48 hours.”
    high

  • Memes

    · 1 mention
    “That's exactly it. Right? It's, you know, people post it on Reddit or hacker news or they, you know, they tweet about it themselves and. Or, you know, it'll end up in other newsletters or. I mean, like, I think founders as a sort of a market, founders in general are really good about sharing stuff.”
    high

  • Newsletter

    · 1 mention
    “we have a newsletter on the blog that you can drop in your email address on and then all of our customers. So between the newsletter, our customers, and then my personal Twitter account and then the Parametrics Twitter account, that's kind of what we share everything across.”
    high

How 2,739 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Baremetrics’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    68% ◀
  • Social media
    60% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    57%
  • Email
    48% ◀
  • Community
    35% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    33% ◀
  • Partnerships
    32% ◀
  • Paid ads
    24%
  • Events
    24%
  • Press/PR
    17% ◀
  • Outbound/Sales
    17%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    10%
  • Product expansion
    2%
  • Influencer partnerships
    2%
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