S
S
Senja
Login Join Starter Story
Source
Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 136 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 →
Senja logo

How Senja Grew

Testimonial collection tool for businesses and creators.

How did Senja grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Senja grew primarily through building in public on Twitter, where daily progress updates helped build an audience from zero to over 20,000 followers. Product-led growth contributed about 30% of Senja's growth, with a generous free tier encouraging users to promote the product themselves. SEO became a major growth channel, accounting for 45% of traffic by ranking highly for testimonial-related keywords through content creation. Affiliate marketing and partnerships with influencers also played a role, responsible for 16% of new signups through relationship building and outreach.

Channels

31 channels · grouped by how Senja grows

  • Organic social media

    · 7 mentions · 7 sources
    “Every small win, setback, and new feature was shared openly on Twitter and in their Build in Public blog. There were no marketing tricks or polished PR moments, just honest updates about what was working and what wasn’t. That transparency slowly turned into a growth engine. Their posts attracted ...”
    high
    Show 6 more quotes
    “After a very active month on Twitter, Senja got its first 100 signups! ... While our main acquisition channel is Twitter...”
    high
    “Up until September, our #1 acquisition source was Twitter. In August, we started experimenting with more marketing methods: We experimented with talking about our product on LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, Reddit, and Twitter. Twitter remained our #1 acquisition source, but now things were becoming dive...”
    high
    “We built in public. We wrote blog posts. We posted regularly on Indie Hackers, Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Quora.”
    high
    “Origin story and meeting his co-founder Wilson via Twitter”
    medium
    “We actually met on X through the #buildinpublic tag, and decided to work together to build and market Senja.”
    high
    “We've tried dozens of things, from shitposting on Twitter to partnering with website builders.”
    high

  • SEO

    · 5 mentions · 5 sources
    “Our SEO and content marketing have suffered. ... SEO is still one of our best performing channels, so we're going to be shipping a lot more help guides, resources and blog posts in the upcoming weeks.”
    high
    Show 4 more quotes
    “In fact we're using our growing revenue to invest in SEO, content, paid ads, sponsorships and development support”
    high
    “There are so many great ways to boost your SEO domain authority, to boost your authority, the eyes of search engines so you can rank for the keywords that are important to you, for the keywords that bring you customers, for the keywords that bring you revenue.”
    medium
    “These days, 45% of our traffic comes from SEO. We rank in the top 3 for testimonial related keywords such as "testimonial collection tool" and "collect testimonials."”
    high
    “Over time, two channels proved to have real compounding power: content visibility (SEO) and product-led growth (PLG). These became the twin engines of Senja’s growth: one attracting users at scale, the other converting them through the product itself.”
    medium

  • Product-led growth

    · 4 mentions · 4 sources
    “The product has a growth aspect in the product itself. Many sites with high domain authority either link to the testimonials or have a widget embedded. If you check the backlinks on A-Refs, Senja has 1.7 million backlinks. That's how the founder grew his domain authority from one to 68 in one year.”
    medium
    Show 3 more quotes
    “I like the fact you have product led customer acquisition. Thats makes all the difference”
    medium
    “their product-led approach”
    medium
    “Over time, two channels proved to have real compounding power: content visibility (SEO) and product-led growth (PLG). These became the twin engines of Senja’s growth: one attracting users at scale, the other converting them through the product itself.”
    medium

  • Online Community

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “We experimented with talking about our product on LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, Reddit, and Twitter.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “...we got some users from IndieHackers...”
    high
    “We joined founder and creator communities in slack and discord.”
    medium

  • Cold outreach

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “I got us our first customer with cold DMs a few days back. I found him using a Reddit Audience Research tool called Gummy Search. To start, I looked for people who were talking about collecting testimonials ... Then, I sent this cold dm to them... he signed up and upgraded. ... I’m definitely goi...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “I got us our first customer with cold DMs a few days back. I found him using a Reddit Audience Research tool called Gummy Search. Then, I sent this cold dm to them... After trying out our product, they fell in love with it. I’m definitely going to try more cold outreach in the future.”
    high

  • Build New Tools

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “The team built a quick interactive product demo and added on their home page to showcase to show, not tell, visitors how Senja works. Instead of sticking to static images, these demos goes above and beyond in demonstrating the value of using a product. This has helped them capture website visitor...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Senja being a testimonial collection tool, it has a place to show collected testimonials called Wall of Love. When customers want to show testimonials, they add a link to the Wall of Love on their site. So what happens is instantly, Senja gets a backlink from the customers.”
    medium

  • Building in public

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “From the start, they chose to build everything in public. Every small win, setback, and new feature was shared openly on Twitter and in their Build in Public blog. There were no marketing tricks or polished PR moments, just honest updates about what was working and what wasn’t. That transparency ...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “He did all this by focusing on building in public, product-led growth, SEO, and affiliate marketing.”
    medium

  • Reddit

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “We experimented with talking about our product on LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, Reddit, and Twitter.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “We experimented with talking about our product on LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, Reddit, and Twitter. Twitter remained our #1 acquisition source, but now things were becoming diverse.”
    medium

  • Word of mouth

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “Now we have a product that is one of the best tools in the market, and because our users love the product so much, word of mouth has started to take off. ... But because we have 100s of happy customers and they keep on recommending us, growth is starting to ramp up.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “...and word of mouth via Senja's widgets.”
    high

  • Partnerships

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “We've tried dozens of things, from shitposting on Twitter to partnering with website builders.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “We sponsored dozens of newsletters”
    medium

  • Distribution Partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “Betalist also brought us 10-15 signups and a lot of exposure.”
    medium

  • Product Hunt

    · 1 mention
    “I remember when he launched on Product Hunt and he was doing build in public on Twitter, just talking about Senja nonstop. ... But also the founder was launching on beta lists and Product Hunt doing repeated launches on Product Hunt. These Product Hunt launches bring awareness, but they also brin...”
    medium

  • Content marketing

    · 1 mention
    “In fact we're using our growing revenue to invest in SEO, content, paid ads, sponsorships and development support”
    high

  • Freemium

    · 1 mention
    “Launching with the most generous free plan in the market”
    medium

  • Inbound

    · 1 mention
    “We were getting 1.5K → 3K visitors to our site every single month. But none of our users activated. They'd sign up, look around for a moment or two, then abandon the app and never return.”
    medium

  • Viral growth

    · 1 mention
    “product-led growth is responsible for about 30% of Senja's growth. In other words, the product itself drives user acquisition, retention, and expansion. ... Powered-by badges are displayed on the testimonials of free users, so they're seen tens of thousands of times every month, with hundreds of ...”
    high

  • Referrals

    · 1 mention
    “our free users are our best promoters! Powered-by badges are displayed on the testimonials of free users, so they're seen tens of thousands of times every month, with hundreds of people signing up each month.”
    high

  • Bootstrapping

    · 1 mention
    “I got us our first customer with cold DMs a few days back. I found him using a Reddit Audience Research tool called Gummy Search. To start, I looked for people who were talking about collecting testimonials, and I found someone who was using screenshots as reviews on their website. Then, I sent t...”
    high

  • Twitter

    · 1 mention
    “Up until September, our #1 acquisition source was Twitter... Twitter remained our #1 acquisition source, but now things were becoming diverse. 70% of our customers came from Twitter. All I do is write about what I’m learning and the interesting things that happen to me.”
    high

  • Optimize conversion rates

    · 1 mention
    “We made sure our users completed one primary action when they signed up, making our users experience value from the get-go. For us, this was creating their form. We artificially reduced the time to magical moments with dummy data and automation.”
    high

  • Advertising on social media

    · 1 mention
    “In fact we're using our growing revenue to invest in SEO, content, paid ads, sponsorships and development support”
    high

  • Optimize Landing Pages

    · 1 mention
    “In August, we started experimenting with more marketing methods: We experimented with talking about our product on LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, Reddit, and Twitter. Twitter remained our #1 acquisition source, but now things were becoming diverse.”
    medium

  • Email marketing

    · 1 mention
    “We even played around with cold outreach via email and Reddit.”
    medium

  • Affiliate program

    · 1 mention
    “Affiliates are responsible for 16% of new signups. My cofounder painstakingly reached out to dozens (maybe even hundreds, now) of influencers, like Jay Clouse, Kieran Drew, and Easlo. ... A lot of those creators have signed up to our affiliate program, and they regularly include us in their newsl...”
    high

  • Referral Program

    · 1 mention
    “The point about free users being your best promoters is something I keep coming back to. Building the powered-by badge into the free tier so it does the marketing for you is genuinely clever. It turns a cost centre into a growth channel.”
    medium

  • Email List Growth

    · 1 mention
    “We listed ourselves on directories like Betalist, Startups.fyi, uneed.best. SaaSHub, and GrowthStash.co.”
    medium

  • Webinars

    · 1 mention
    “We’re starting to use Supedemo in our outbound marketing, particularly when approaching new partners. Rather than describe the nature of an integration, we can show them it!”
    high

  • LinkedIn

    · 1 mention
    “We experimented with talking about our product on LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, Reddit, and Twitter.”
    high

  • Testimonials

    · 1 mention
    “Testimonials really shine once you use them at every stage of your marketing funnel, especially where objections are raisedIn your adsIn your support emailsIn your sales demosOn your book a demo pageIn your social profilesEtc.”
    medium

  • Guest posts

    · 1 mention
    “We wrote blog posts.”
    high

  • Sponsorship

    · 1 mention
    “In fact we're using our growing revenue to invest in SEO, content, paid ads, sponsorships and development support”
    high

How 2,710 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Senja’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    68% ◀
  • Social media
    59% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    57% ◀
  • Email
    48% ◀
  • Community
    34% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    32% ◀
  • Partnerships
    30% ◀
  • Paid ads
    24%
  • Events
    24% ◀
  • Press/PR
    18%
  • Outbound/Sales
    16% ◀
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    9%
  • Product expansion
    2%
  • Brand Authenticity
    2%
S
Starter Story
Support Privacy Terms