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UserFlow
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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 63 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 UserFlow Grew

No-code onboarding tool for SaaS companies

How did UserFlow grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

UserFlow grew primarily through a product-led growth strategy, allowing customers to self-serve and scale usage without sales calls. They focused on automation and self-serve support, such as Slack communities, guides, and FAQs, to efficiently serve a growing customer base without expanding their workforce. UserFlow also leveraged search engine marketing, thought leadership, and word of mouth to acquire customers and spread awareness.

Channels

29 channels · grouped by how UserFlow grows

  • Product-led growth

    · 11 mentions · 11 sources
    “But the primary way to stay small, yet effective is to adopt product-led growth (PLG) as your go-to market model and a mindset where you always think product-first in everything you do. So if you e.g. get a lot of support questions, then think of how you can fix the root cause in the product inst...”
    high
    Show 10 more quotes
    “But in userflow we're really at that, I think, which we were also in the early stage of COVID like the true product led, where you, everything you do is product led. Right. We try really not to do sales meetings at all and not have customer success necessarily. And it's all like the product is dr...”
    high
    “We are born product-led business, right? So everything we do is product-led. So we have a free trial, you can sign up, you can buy without ever speaking with a salesperson. Of course, we do sales assist in case it's needed, and we do great support, but there is a full product-led workflow for you...”
    high
    “Early on, they sold to individual engineers through a product-led open source SaaS motion.”
    medium
    “Userflow has garnered attention from the global SaaS community as a bootstrapper's success story, having reached significant scale without any external funding, and doing so through implementing product-led growth (PLG) best practices.”
    medium
    “You are on the practical founder podcast number forty two in april of twenty twenty three talking about user flow product let growth.”
    medium
    “The two focused on keeping their team small and efficient, bootstrapping to raise revenue rather than seeking outside investment by taking a product-led growth approach.”
    medium
    “They operated Userflow asynchronously ... let the product sell itself and automate as much as possible. This strategy led to steady growth and eventually to Userflow’s acquisition”
    medium
    “Userflow’s success can be attributed to its focus on building a great product, leveraging SEM for acquisition, and implementing a solid product-led growth strategy.”
    medium
    “PLG was at the heart of Userflow’s strategy. Instead of relying on a sales team, the product became the primary driver of growth. The self-service model meant customers could quickly sign up, experience the value, and scale their usage—without requiring a single sales call.”
    medium
    “PLG was at the heart of Userflow’s strategy. Instead of relying on a sales team, the product became the primary driver of growth. The self-service model meant customers could quickly sign up, experience the value, and scale their usage—without requiring a single sales call.”
    medium

  • Automation

    · 6 mentions · 6 sources
    “I think a lot of automation, first of all. The first thing I did when I came into the company was automate a lot of the processes based on my learnings from Cobalt. I knew where you could automate emails, a lot of different things.”
    high
    Show 5 more quotes
    “Finally the things you cannot fix in the product you should try to automate. There are great tools out there for automation of emails and other processes.”
    high
    “They focused on raising revenue instead of capital, and on automating processes rather than hiring staff.”
    medium
    “Esben highlights the importance of automation, self-service features, and a seamless onboarding process in driving customer acquisition and revenue growth.”
    medium
    “Automation played a crucial role in Userflow's journey - allowing them to serve a growing customer base without expanding their workforce.”
    medium
    “Automation played a crucial role in Userflow's journey - allowing them to serve a growing customer base without expanding their workforce.”
    medium

  • Podcasting

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “As an established voice in Silicon Valley, Friis-Jensen was able to get the word out about Userflow through public speaking engagements like industry conferences and podcasts.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “As an established voice in Silicon Valley, Friis-Jensen was able to get the word out about Userflow through public speaking engagements like industry conferences and podcasts.”
    high
    “Spend a lot of time on spreading the word, what one would call thought leadership or social selling Similar now being on podcast and being-It’s all part of the game, right?”
    high

  • SEO

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “But also we use search engine marketing, ... and the predictable tool, where forward leadership and SEO is much harder to control and predict Then SEM is really easy to control and predict. That’s been a great tool for us. ... Then the big unknown is SEO, word of mouth. That’s the rest. It’s real...”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “What growth channels drive Userflow's customer acquisition without a sales team? SEO, Google Ads, thought leadership around product-led growth and no-code trends, review sites like G2 and Capterra, and word of mouth from customers who appreciate the product's UX quality.”
    high
    “so yes, we use SEM, we use SEO, but the other thing... You do some paid advertising.”
    high

  • Search engine marketing

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “The existing demand also meant that we could deploy SEM (search engine marketing) early on in Userflow’s journey. We found the first few customers via our network, but right after, a lot of them came through SEM.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “so yes, we use SEM, we use SEO, but the other thing... You do some paid advertising. ... SEM has been highly effective for us at Useflow.”
    high
    “Userflow’s success can be attributed to its focus on building a great product, leveraging SEM for acquisition, and implementing a solid product-led growth strategy.”
    medium

  • Thought Leadership

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “What growth channels drive Userflow's customer acquisition without a sales team? SEO, Google Ads, thought leadership around product-led growth and no-code trends, review sites like G2 and Capterra, and word of mouth from customers who appreciate the product's UX quality.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “I could go out, be a thought leader in product growth, speak about product growth, and use that to, to both speak about a model that I love to talk about, right, and which we're doing right now. ... it's also a great way to get cheaper marketing for for Useflow, right?”
    high
    “He shares vital insights from his entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the value of thought leadership, pricing strategy, and adopting AI technologies like GPT-4 to enhance customer support.”
    medium

  • Founder-led sales

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “So I think we at that point decided to transition into a more sales led model where we did demos, we had customer success for every customer. So a more high touch, both sales and support model. And we needed to do that because of the kind of competing with the service industry.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “So then we started doing more high touch sales, high touch customer success. Bigger customers, bigger contracts, the whole thing.”
    high

  • Network effects

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “it all starts with a great product. Without a great product, you can’t do this. It needs to be a product that has an easy-to-use interface, a great UX, shouldn’t have any bugs, this stuff. That’s what really slows you down if you have a buggy product with a bad UX. That’s number one, is really ha...”
    medium
    Show 1 more quote
    “From there, they let the product sell itself through a free-trial model. Software companies could see firsthand how seamlessly Userflow could onboard their customers.”
    medium

  • Innovation

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “we launched an ai assistant so it's basically a support yeah chat okay it's before um based so you can connect your knowledge base and then it can answer questions so that's been very successful for us as a upgrade to both existing customers but also to acquire new customers and then we've added ...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “He emphasizes the need for strategic growth initiatives, product innovation, and continuous optimization of pricing and go-to-market strategies.”
    medium

  • Inbound

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “we do free trials and the customers, many customers, will just buy without ever speaking to us. Right. They'll just go to free trial and then buy our product.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “From the website to marketing, Userflow stays hyper-focused on their message of delivering the best no-code builder for in-app customer onboarding.Esben shares, ... This attracts the right ICPs (Ideal customer profiles) to our free trial, so we don’t waste time vetting through customers with comp...”
    medium

  • Word of mouth

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “What growth channels drive Userflow's customer acquisition without a sales team? SEO, Google Ads, thought leadership around product-led growth and no-code trends, review sites like G2 and Capterra, and word of mouth from customers who appreciate the product's UX quality.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “From an acquisition standpoint, besides from thought leadership, word of mouth is, of course, big because we have a great product.”
    high

  • Cold outreach

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “And the way to do that is really in the beginning, it’s all about grinding, Getting connected to potential customers and getting them to try the product and so on.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “We do have some outbound like email campaigns, LinkedIn, networking and so on.”
    high

  • Freemium

    · 1 mention
    “And then also opening up the floodgates by having something like a free trial, for instance, so people can also just find you and try it out, the people you are not able to connect with.”
    high

  • Integrations

    · 1 mention
    “building these product-led growth processes, for instance, in-app onboarding, email onboarding, automated CRM orchestration, connecting with ChatMogel to get the metrics in an automated way, using Stripe for your billing so you don’t have manual invoices floating around. It’s all part of that gam...”
    high

  • Personal network

    · 1 mention
    “We found the first few customers via our network, but right after, a lot of them came through SEM.”
    high

  • Customer education

    · 1 mention
    “In the early stage, did you do this as well? Because in the early stage, you probably want to get a lot of feedback. You want to talk to clients.– Esben FriisYeah, for sure. In the beginning, In the beginning, in the very early phases, you are much more high touch. You will jump on calls a lot mo...”
    medium

  • Google Ads

    · 1 mention
    “What growth channels drive Userflow's customer acquisition without a sales team? SEO, Google Ads, thought leadership around product-led growth and no-code trends, review sites like G2 and Capterra, and word of mouth from customers who appreciate the product's UX quality.”
    high

  • Public speaking

    · 1 mention
    “As an established voice in Silicon Valley, Friis-Jensen was able to get the word out about Userflow through public speaking engagements like industry conferences and podcasts.”
    high

  • Facebook Community

    · 1 mention
    “By introducing friction, you will allow for higher ACV and more async support which scales much better. Instead, introducing a Slack community, a help center with FAQ, and building in feedback into the product immediately - you will provide support in a scalable way.”
    medium

  • Speaking at conferences

    · 1 mention
    “As an established voice in Silicon Valley, Friis-Jensen was able to get the word out about Userflow through public speaking engagements like industry conferences and podcasts.”
    high

  • Online Community

    · 1 mention
    “By introducing friction, you will allow for higher ACV and more async support which scales much better. Instead, introducing a Slack community, a help center with FAQ, and building in feedback into the product immediately - you will provide support in a scalable way.”
    medium

  • Leveraging existing platforms

    · 1 mention
    “And then we also are listed on a number of like the G2s, the capterras of this world. Right. That's also a great channel for us where people leave reviews because that's a good place to spread the word of mouth.”
    high

  • Pop-up stores at events

    · 1 mention
    “From an acquisition standpoint, besides from thought leadership, word of mouth is, of course, big because we have a great product. But also we use search engine marketing, and some people are very much against Google Ads. You can’t get value from that. But in our space, where it’s a very competit...”
    high

  • Content marketing

    · 1 mention
    “we do a lot of thought leadership and content marketing which are things we can create on our own.”
    high

  • Events

    · 1 mention
    “And a big part of selling in security is there's a couple of big conferences, rsa, Black Hat, DEF Con and these kind of where you do a bit more event driven sales. Right. So event driven marketing. And we were really good at that due to especially our VP of marketing being really good at that.”
    high

  • Outbound

    · 1 mention
    “But I would say today, which, which I don't think it was necessarily as easy in 2013. Today, you can build a business from Denmark without problems and make it a global tech business if you want to. You moved to San Francisco with your Danish co-founder friends and created this company, raised mo...”
    medium

  • Conferences

    · 1 mention
    “As an established voice in Silicon Valley, Friis-Jensen was able to get the word out about Userflow through public speaking engagements like industry conferences and podcasts.”
    high

  • Open-source community

    · 1 mention
    “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. He intended it purely as demand generation for the paid Gravity product.”
    medium

  • User feedback

    · 1 mention
    “He advocates for a customer-centric approach, focusing on getting paying customers and iterating based on their feedback to drive early growth”
    medium

How 2,669 businesses grow

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