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Ben's Bites
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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 74 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 Ben's Bites Grew

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How did Ben's Bites grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Ben's Bites grew primarily through word of mouth, as delivering value to members led to organic momentum without aggressive promotion. Email marketing, particularly through a newsletter, was a significant channel for acquiring early members. Ben actively engaged on social media platforms like Twitter by responding to relevant conversations, which helped convert followers into subscribers. He also implemented a referral program early on to encourage growth through existing subscribers.

Channels

12 channels · grouped by how Ben's Bites grows

  • Word of mouth

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “It was one of those, the only thing I've ever launched that actually had its own pull momentum where people were just paying. I wasn't like trying to push it onto people to say, I need to get signups, need to get signups. It was just actually happening organically, which was really nice for a cha...”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “One of Ben’s most impactful growth levers at the beginning of his journey was being the Reply Guy. He wasn’t bashful or nervous to talk about what he was building. And he was able to turn that into direct subscribers and get people talking.”
    high
    “If you do deliver like a ton of value to members, then like word of mouth is obviously one of the best channels to grow.”
    high

  • Email marketing

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “The newsletter obviously is a big portion of where we got a lot of our early members. So that definitely helps.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “I think there is a lot to learn from Ben’s story, but here are some of my main takeaways. Don’t Be Afraid to Try Things ... Ben wouldn’t have a newsletter with over 100k subscribers today.”
    low

  • Organic social media

    · 1 mention
    “Since a ton of his followers came from Twitter, I’m sure this made sense at the time.”
    medium

  • Product expansion

    · 1 mention
    “I just remember to record my screen. And then I'll use that as like a tutorial platform. And there was, there was like, I can't remember if it's called Go Rails. It was like a Rails tutorial business that was doing well at the time. I was like, well, it's just, it's that basically for no code. Th...”
    medium

  • Online Community

    · 1 mention
    “In February 2023, Ben created a Discord community for his audience as well. This is a place where people can connect and share ideas around the AI space. It’s quickly ballooned and now has over 3,700 members.”
    medium

  • LinkedIn

    · 1 mention
    “Other than every time I tweet about something that I'd launched, people would always be asking me, how did you build this? I know you don't code. So how have you built this thing? So it's the whole, those who can't do teach.”
    medium

  • Build New Tools

    · 1 mention
    “Not only is Ben moving quickly, but he’s also creating tools and things that his audience gets a ton of value from. Ben Bites News is essentially a platform like Hacker News where you can submit top releases and links all around AI. Other users can upvote these and you can filter them based on wh...”
    medium

  • Distribution Partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “Zapier came to me because someone tweeted that Airtable or Zapier should buy MarketPad. So Wade sent me that tweet and said, hey, we should talk. And he'd been on the MarketPad podcast and we obviously feature Zapier heavily on MarketPad. And yeah, they just were interested. ... It was more they ...”
    high

  • Press

    · 1 mention
    “If he tries something or has success with an experiment, he’ll share it on Twitter. ... Ben is wide open with the data and while I haven’t got his confirmation, I’m sure Build Your Own Sponsor Platform ... This might not seem to help growth at the outset, but being able to just share a link to a ...”
    medium

  • Personal network

    · 1 mention
    “One of the most effective ways Ben was able to grow in the early days was by becoming “The Reply Guy.” If you saw a tweet about AI, ChatGPT, or anything even close, Ben was in the comments section. From the day he started his newsletter to the end of March 2023, he was doing this constantly.”
    high

  • AudioPen Prime Beta Testing Recruitment

    · 1 mention
    “Ben is not shy about saying that he ran some paid ads to grow his newsletter. ... Ben even said that he was running more ads at this point, which was February 27th. I found a few Twitter ads to give you some idea of the creative and what was being tested.”
    high

  • Lead Nurturing Sequence

    · 1 mention
    “7 days into the newsletter, Ben launched his referral program. ... He was testing this out to see if it worked. ... The Rewards Over the life of the newsletter, Ben has kept these referral rewards pretty much the same. ... He gives it away for 1 referral so it’s a super light lift for his readers.”
    high

How 2,670 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Ben's Bites’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    68% ◀
  • Social media
    58% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    57%
  • Email
    47% ◀
  • Community
    33% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    31%
  • Partnerships
    30% ◀
  • Paid ads
    24%
  • Events
    24%
  • Press/PR
    18% ◀
  • Outbound/Sales
    16%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    8%
  • Brand Authenticity
    2%
  • Product expansion
    2% ◀
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