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Formula Bot
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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 9 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 Formula Bot Grew

AI tool that generates Excel formulas instantly

How did Formula Bot grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Formula Bot initially grew by going viral on Reddit, particularly in the Excel subreddit, which led to significant user engagement and feedback that helped develop the product further. The viral Reddit exposure was amplified by TikTok influencers sharing the site, which contributed to social media virality across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit. Organic search traffic from people searching for Excel formulas and the brand name also made up a large portion of site traffic, supported by SEO efforts including blog content targeting specific formulas. Email marketing and automated customer journeys were used to improve retention and personalized messaging, while word of mouth through colleagues, friends, and social media influencers drove much of the traffic.

Channels

15 channels · grouped by how Formula Bot grows

  • Reddit

    · 6 mentions · 5 sources
    “I shared the website in the Excel subreddit, where users provided a tremendous amount of feedback and recommendations on the product, which was later used to develop the site as it stands today. The post ... quickly went viral on the Excel subreddit, then was later shared in a few other Reddit co...”
    high
    Show 5 more quotes
    “I shared the website in the Excel subreddit, where users provided a tremendous amount of feedback and recommendations on the product, which was later used to develop the site as it stands today. The post quickly went viral on the Excel subreddit, then was later shared in a few other Reddit commun...”
    high
    “And so when I built this MVP and I put it out there, put it out there on Reddit, it went viral next day on Reddit.”
    high
    “And so naturally, the next place I went was Reddit. Went to the Excel subreddit, where there's probably several hundred people that follow it. ... Minutes later, it was like the top post of the day, turned into the top post of the week. ... A couple of days after that, someone in the comment sect...”
    high
    “Leveraging Reddit and YouTube for Visibility”
    medium
    “Redditでバイラル化 → TikTokインフルエンサーが拡散 75万ユーザー、有料会員10,900人の獲得戦略”
    medium

  • Email marketing

    · 3 mentions · 2 sources
    “the one thing I'm good at, at least I like to think, is marketing and paid media, email marketing. And so, like, that's probably been the biggest change, you know, I mentioned earlier, I had such stagnation for four months in a row. And, you know, causation or correlation, I think it's more so ca...”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “Because I more or less had other people promoting the site for me, I was able to focus on retention. I built out customer journeys via website promotions and automated emails with multiple touchpoints to deliver personalized messaging.”
    high
    “I built out customer journeys via website promotions and automated emails with multiple touchpoints to deliver personalized messaging. Messaging varies based on the types of questions users ask in the generator, how many days out since they created their account, their level of engagement, if the...”
    medium

  • Organic social media

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “which acted as the catalyst of the social virality the site has garnered since development - going viral on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “It went viral on TikTok.”
    high
    “David also shares his journey bootstrapping Formula Bot to over $1M in revenue as a solo founder, what he learned along the way...”
    medium

  • SEO

    · 3 mentions · 2 sources
    “Organic search (largely made up of people Googling “excel formula bot”) and direct traffic make up the vast majority of site traffic, which speaks to the value of having a strong brand and a brand name that is easy to remember.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “Organic search (largely made up of people Googling “excel formula bot”) and direct traffic make up the vast majority of site traffic, which speaks to the value of having a strong brand and a brand name that is easy to remember. SEO has been a new focal point, as I’ve been building out content pag...”
    high
    “Maximizing AI Search Visibility with GPTrends: Hands-On 'Labs' Episode! ... GPTrends platform, show real visibility metrics, analyze prompts, review what AI sees when it scans your brand, and cover the exact on-page and off-page systems you need to appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI...”
    medium

  • Word of mouth

    · 2 mentions
    “so much of the traffic is driven by word of mouth through colleagues, friends, and social media influencers.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Email remarketing gets a decent amount of traffic, but so much of the traffic is driven by word of mouth through colleagues, friends, and social media influencers.”
    high

  • Business Mascot

    · 1 mention
    “So much of the early traction came from TikTok influencers talking about the site as a “website that feels illegal to know”. I found that influencers are ‘monkey see, monkey do’. If a well-known influencer with large following talks about something, there’s a swarm of micro-influencers that will ...”
    high

  • Influencer partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “So much of the early traction came from TikTok influencers talking about the site as a “website that feels illegal to know”. I found that influencers are ‘monkey see, monkey do’. If a well-known influencer with large following talks about something, there’s a swarm of micro-influencers that will ...”
    high

  • Product Hunt

    · 1 mention
    “Within the first week, I launched the site on ProductHunt.com, a popular website to bolster the awareness of your official product launch. With a heavy discount to celebrate the launch, the site generated several thousand dollars during the week of the launch.”
    high

  • Paid social ads

    · 1 mention
    “And when you'd go to Google and you'd search mine, you'd see the other couple ones right there. So at that point, it was really a race to the bottom. And my prices, especially early on, it was $3.”
    medium

  • Personal network

    · 1 mention
    “And so the culmination of kind of scratching my own itch, leaning on my network and having these kind of impromptu phone calls kind of revolutionized the product away from just being an Excel formula generator...”
    medium

  • Offline advertising

    · 1 mention
    “Influencers just focus on video platforms like TikTok and Instagram. I wanted to ensure I was diversifying my social reach, so my strategy on Twitter was to engage in conversations with people talking about Excel. Additionally, I set up alerts to be notified when Excel influencers like ‘Excel Dic...”
    high

  • Partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “the site is now profitable and continues to grow. The gross profit has increased each month with increased subscribers, optimized costs, and diversified revenue streams by partnering with complementary affiliates - Excel courses website and Excel templates website.”
    medium

  • Pay Per Click Advertising

    · 1 mention
    “Because SEO is not a channel that has overnight success, I started investing in PPC for people searching for Excel formulas or Excel courses. With a $10 cost per lead, I’m not breaking even when accounting for the lifetime value and lead-to-subscribe rate, but I continue to invest.”
    high

  • Build New Tools

    · 1 mention
    “And so the culmination of kind of scratching my own itch, leaning on my network and having these kind of impromptu phone calls kind of revolutionized the product away from just being an Excel formula generator to just kind of being this all in platform for anything that you do with data analy”
    medium

  • Email Another Businesses Subscriber List

    · 1 mention
    “Within the first week, I launched the site on ProductHunt.com, a popular website to bolster the awareness of your official product launch. With a heavy discount to celebrate the launch, the site generated several thousand dollars during the week of the launch. This was the reaffirmation I needed ...”
    medium

How 2,695 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Formula Bot’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    68% ◀
  • Social media
    58% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    57% ◀
  • Email
    47% ◀
  • Community
    34% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    32%
  • Partnerships
    30% ◀
  • Paid ads
    24% ◀
  • Events
    24%
  • Press/PR
    17%
  • Outbound/Sales
    16% ◀
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    8%
  • Brand Authenticity
    2%
  • Product expansion
    2%
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