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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 48 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 Helpkit Grew

Transform Notion docs into professional help centers.

How did Helpkit grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Helpkit grew initially through direct sales, with Dominik sending hundreds of personalized emails, conducting demo calls, and manually onboarding every customer, which also provided valuable product feedback. The company built free tools for the Notion community, such as the Simple Notion Table Generator, which went viral in Notion communities and drove consistent traffic and leads through a simple call to action. Dominik embraced building in public by sharing revenue numbers on Twitter, which created accountability, attracted early customers, built credibility, and generated word-of-mouth. Helpkit also leveraged organic social media, particularly Twitter, by sharing product updates and lessons learned, which helped attract customers and generate marketing momentum.

Channels

19 channels · grouped by how Helpkit grows
  • SEO

    · 3 mentions · 2 sources
    “I called it Notion Simple Table so that I can benefit from all the SEO juice that is already out there as this is exactly what people were searching for.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “I called it Notion Simple Table so that I can benefit from all the SEO juice that is already out there as this is exactly what people were searching for.”
    high
    “HelpKit is optimized for SEO so that search engines easily find your website. Loads up to 100x faster than default Notion pages.”
    medium
  • Reddit

    · 3 mentions · 2 sources
    “primarily I shared my lessons a lot on Reddit, so I would go in all of these subreddits like r slash entrepreneur or r slash startup, r slash SaaS and I would basically just, without promoting my product, just share my lessons like, Hey, I got 20 new customers from this like marketing experiment....”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “In the early days, two distinct strategies worked great for me. The first one is sharing my story of building a fully bootstrapped company as a solo founder on platforms such as Reddit and Indiehackers. Two of my IndieHackers posts made it into the Top Milestones newsletter and the Top Stories se...”
    high
    “The first one is sharing my story of building a fully bootstrapped company as a solo founder on platforms such as Reddit and Indiehackers.”
    high
  • Building in public

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “I'm a big proponent of building public. For those of you who don't know about it, it's basically sharing all of your numbers super transparently. If you go back to my Twitter, you can see me sharing like my numbers all the way up to $10,000 in MRR...”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “It’s amazing that by just sharing your process in public you get your first customers for your SaaS. No paid advertisement, no crazy growth hacks, just genuinely sharing your story building a company.”
    high
    “Dominik embraced radical transparency, sharing revenue numbers on Twitter from day one. This strategy delivered multiple benefits:Created accountability and motivationAttracted early customers who wanted to support the journeyBuilt credibility in the indie hacker communityGenerated word-of-mouth ...”
    medium
  • Twitter

    · 3 mentions · 2 sources
    “for me, it was basically Twitter and I was sharing everything I did, like every product update, every little design change. I was sharing a screenshot of like, Hey guys, what do you think?”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “Besides my audience on Twitter, I made a quick explanation video and tried to look for some other places where the Notion community hangs out: A Facebook group and r/Notion. That was it. I gave the post the name: 'How to create a simple table in Notion' and boom… The community loved it!”
    high
    “HelpKit just reached $1000 in total revenue with Twitter being one of the best marketing channels so far”
    high
  • Youtube

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “I also recorded a little Youtube video demoing HelpKit AI you can check out.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “I made a quick explanation video and tried to look for some other places where the Notion community hangs out: A Facebook group and r/Notion That was it.”
    medium
  • Build New Tools

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “The second one is what I call 'Engineering as marketing'. The idea is simple; creating free useful tools for your target audience.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “One of HelpKit's most successful growth tactics was building free tools for the Notion community. The star example: the Simple Notion Table Generator.”
    medium
  • Cold outreach

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “That's the really tough part is finding the first set of customers. I spend days just cold emailing people.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “In the early days, Dominik sent hundreds of personalized emails, hopped on demo calls, and manually onboarded every customer. This hands-on approach provided invaluable product feedback.”
    medium
  • Product Hunt

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “go on launch platforms, like go on product hunt. Now, we all know product hunt is not exactly what it used to be anymore. However, it's still a great platform. It has a high domain authority. You want to get some good backlinks for your product and so, like, you really just publish your product i...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “And now, we just finally launched on Product Hunt as well!”
    high
  • Organic social media

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “I kept posting and sharing updates and finally the following week I received my first two pre-orders.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Dominik embraced radical transparency, sharing revenue numbers on Twitter from day one. This strategy delivered multiple benefits:...Generated word-of-mouth as people shared his updates”
    medium
  • Webflow communities

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “The tool went viral in Notion communities. Users could visually create tables and get the code to paste into Notion. At the bottom, a simple CTA: "Using Notion? Your company might need a help center built on it." This single free tool drove consistent traffic and leads for months, ranking well in...”
    medium
    Show 1 more quote
    “I know people that use LinkedIn, for example, and especially if you're in the B2B niche, LinkedIn can be very, very valuable. However, it comes with a specific cost of being on LinkedIn, which for some people is a bit unbearable, so I can get that as well, but for me, it was basically Twitter...”
    medium
  • Bubble community

    · 1 mention
    “But because already Notion was getting traction, I was interacting with a lot of people in the Notion community as well. We kind of pushed each other in a way.”
    high
  • Direct sales

    · 1 mention
    “In the early days, Dominik sent hundreds of personalized emails, hopped on demo calls, and manually onboarded every customer. This hands-on approach provided invaluable product feedback.”
    medium
  • Side project marketing

    · 1 mention
    “maybe one more thing that I think primarily helped for Help Kit as well was the concept of engineering for marketing. There's a lot of words for this, but the idea is that you build like small free tools and you put them on your landing page on a sub path, so you get the SEO juice... building lit...”
    high
  • Online Community

    · 1 mention
    “The first one is sharing my story of building a fully bootstrapped company as a solo founder on platforms such as Reddit and Indiehackers. Two of my IndieHackers posts made it into the Top Milestones newsletter and the Top Stories section on the homepage.”
    high
  • LinkedIn

    · 1 mention
    “In July 2021 I then tweeted out the page to my 300 followers. I did not expect much given the low follower count I had back then but luckily to my surprise, I started to get interested from members of the Notion community and almost gained 100 followers overnight.”
    high
  • Pinterest

    · 1 mention
    “The problem of not having a simple table is a very well-known problem in the Notion community and there are countless Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook threads demanding it.”
    medium
  • Social media mentions

    · 1 mention
    “There was a guy that very early on became some sort of Notion influencer. And in the very beginning, I was like kind of just interacting with him. He had like 5,000 followers or something on Twitter. And he asked me if he can have Help Kit, if he can use Help Kit for his company. And I gave it to...”
    high
  • Optimize Landing Pages

    · 1 mention
    “At the bottom, a simple CTA: "Using Notion? Your company might need a help center built on it." This single free tool drove consistent traffic and leads for months, ranking well in search and getting shared across Reddit and Facebook groups.”
    medium
  • Peer Community

    · 1 mention
    “The community loved it! It's such a great feeling to provide people with a tool they truly wanted. You won't believe how many 'You are god sent' comments I have received.”
    medium

How 2,667 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Helpkit’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%