S
D
Doist
Login Join Starter Story
Source
Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 53 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 →
Doist logo

How Doist Grew

Remote-first productivity tools for individuals and teams

How did Doist grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Doist grew by leveraging powerful free distribution channels such as SEO, ensuring high visibility in search engines and app stores. They also expanded their sales by targeting higher-level professionals, which significantly increased the average deal size. Additionally, Doist utilized a product-led open source SaaS approach to sell to individual engineers early on. They further drove growth through a custom affiliate program integrated into their product, enabling customers and marketers to promote on their behalf.

Channels

6 channels · grouped by how Doist grows

  • SEO

    · 1 mention
    “We have been very lucky with tapping in some very powerful distribution channels which are free, so SEO if you search for ‘to-do list,’ we are going to be at the top on all the search engines; the app stores as well.”
    high

  • Affiliate program

    · 1 mention
    “They created a custom affiliate program built directly into the product, letting happy customers and professional marketers drive growth on their behalf.”
    high

  • Content marketing

    · 1 mention
    “They built versus pages targeting competitors who had raised millions in venture capital, turning those rivals' marketing spend into Missive's discovery channel.”
    high

  • Open-source community

    · 1 mention
    “Early on, they sold to individual engineers through a product-led open source SaaS motion.”
    high

  • Founder-led sales

    · 1 mention
    “Switching from practitioners to VPs of platform engineering nearly tripled the average deal size in a single year.”
    medium

  • Community marketing

    · 1 mention
    “The original product, Gravity, helped SaaS companies deploy their applications across multiple cloud environments. But the real open source SaaS story started when Ev built Teleport as one component of Gravity - a free, Apache-licensed tool for managing secure access.”
    medium

How 2,546 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Doist’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    68%
  • Social media
    57%
  • Search/SEO
    57% ◀
  • Email
    47%
  • Community
    31% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    30% ◀
  • Partnerships
    28% ◀
  • Events
    23%
  • Paid ads
    23%
  • Press/PR
    17%
  • Outbound/Sales
    14% ◀
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    7%
  • Brand Authenticity
    2%
  • Customer interviews
    2%
S
Starter Story
Support Privacy Terms