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SpyFu
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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 11 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 SpyFu Grew

SEO and PPC competitive research tool for marketers.

How did SpyFu grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

SpyFu initially grew by sending a single direct SMTP email message on launch day to announce their product. They also gained customers through a press release that was picked up by major outlets like the Wall Street Journal, bringing about 10,000 visitors monthly. Adjusting their product name improved their Google Ads performance, resulting in tripled sales.

Channels

4 channels · grouped by how SpyFu grows

  • SEO

    · 1 mention
    “We do sort of a, a value to the world. We keep a product free... and kind of keep like lowering our prices to put it in the hands of, you know, the little guy, we just really kind of like my mission. Our mission is to, is to empower, is to, is to level the playing field for entrepreneurs and, uh,...”
    medium

  • Email marketing

    · 1 mention
    “Our launch day was me writing an SMTP script. We didn't have an email platform, dude. I wrote a program that sent direct SMTP messages. And it was literally no lead-up, no follow-through. It was literally one message. Hey, you can buy Sprite food now. That's it.”
    high

  • Press

    · 1 mention
    “We did a press release because there's no social media, right? So we did a press release and it got picked up by like the Wall Street Journal, among other things. And so we got like maybe 10,000 customers coming to the site every month.”
    high

  • Pay Per Click Advertising

    · 1 mention
    “I was going to do some spending on, on Google ads, Google, what was called AdWords at the time. I made this mistake when I named my original product... And so when I changed the product name to web scraper plus is kind of like the most basic SEO thing you can do. My sales actually tripled.”
    high

How 2,669 businesses grow

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