AI tool turning text instructions into Excel formulas.

David Bressler, the founder of Excelformulabot.com, came up with the idea while on paternity leave. After discovering the power of AI and its potential in Excel formulas, he realized there was a need for an AI-based Excel formula generator. With 1 billion Excel users worldwide, Bressler saw a big enough market and quickly built a barebone application that went viral and gained traction through Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Since the launch in September 2022, the website has generated over $14K in monthly recurring revenue.

Excelformulabot was developed quickly to capitalize on the growing AI industry, with a minimalistic MVP built using the no-code platform Bubble.io. The initial version had basic functionality: an input field for user instructions, a button for generating formulas, an output field displaying the results, and a copy button. This barebone MVP took just a few weeks to build, reflecting David's urgency to harness the first mover's advantage in the AI space. He faced challenges related to unexpected high API costs due to viral exposure and immediately had to create a business model to manage costs efficiently. Feedback from the Excel subreddit was crucial for iterating on the initial version, which transitioned into a subscription-based platform with paywalls and logins over several months, demonstrating the effectiveness of user feedback in refining product offerings.

Viral Marketing on Social Media

Excelformulabot experienced significant growth through viral marketing, particularly on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit. The platform gained traction when users began sharing it as a "website that feels illegal to know." The ripple effect from influencers and micro-influencers posting about Excelformulabot amplified the brand's reach substantially. The virality continued across different social platforms, leading to widespread recognition and traffic.

Why it worked: Viral marketing tapped into the power of social proof. When influencers shared their experiences, their followers were intrigued and inclined to check out the service themselves. The portrayal of the site as a secretive hack added a compelling element that spurred curiosity and shareability.

Influencer Collaborations

Direct engagement with influencers has been a crucial part of Excelformulabot’s marketing strategy. David Bressler reached out to influencers whose audiences aligned with the product's use case in areas like finance, data, and accounting. Collaborations were either based on free promotions or paid partnerships, typically ranging from $200 to $3K per engagement.

Why it worked: Engaging influencers allowed Excelformulabot to tap into established communities that trusted their recommendations. This strategy effectively positioned the product in front of targeted users who found immediate value in the tool, especially amidst audiences who frequently use Excel.

Organic SEO and Branding

Excelformulabot benefitted from organic search traffic, largely driven by people searching for terms like "Excel formula bot." The brand's presence as both the category creator and the main solution provider resulted in high exposure on search engines. The site also garnered backlinks from reputable sites, enhancing its organic search appeal.

Why it worked: The brand's dominance in its niche and the creation of targeted content helped capture users actively searching for AI solutions for Excel. Having a name that directly matched user intent searches significantly enhanced discoverability and credibility.

Email Marketing and User Engagement

For customer retention and reengagement, Excelformulabot deployed email marketing strategies. Personalized messaging was developed based on user interactions, such as the type of formulas searched and user engagement levels. These tailored emails helped retain paying customers as well as encourage trial users to convert.

Why it worked: Personalized email campaigns aligned closely with user behavior, increasing the relevance and impact of each communication. This approach fostered a sense of connection and ensured users saw continued value in maintaining their subscriptions.

Collaborative CRM tool integrating seamlessly with modern workflows.

After McKinsey, I did Le Wagon, a coding bootcamp. I started freelancing for multiple clients and I was managing all my leads in a spreadsheet, juggling between conversation on LinkedIn, Whatsapp, emails and live meetings. I was overwhelmed.

I started then looking for a CRM and tried Hubspot, Pipedrive. And wooooof. I felt like going back 20 years in time. The experience was daunting, slow, complex to setup, and not connected to my modern tools. Wearing my consultant hat, I was excited by the contrast between the market size (massive!) the appreciation for the current offerings (very low NPS!).

I then met Thibaud Elziere, ex founder of Fotolia (sold to Adobe) and Hexa. As a SaaS entrepreneur, he dreamed about going after Salesforce, the king of SaaS. That's how it all started.

We then met Jean-Yves, the CTO. We simply built a landing page that we released to validate the idea: a new kind of CRM, simple, easy-to-use, connected, intelligent. We got 10K sign ups on the landing. We knew we were onto something.

After validating the idea with a landing page, we started designing the product, first on Figma. We had raised at this time $2.5m pre-seed from Accel.

We invited leads from the waitlist to have conversations with us, to deeply understand their needs. And after each conversation, we were back to coding, to implement what we learned. Here is the email we used to share:

First email to waitlist

The bar to challenge CRMs was super high, there was so much to build. The category is super mature, and the CRM is so central in the stack of businesses, there was no room for an MVP. We were measuring how well we were solving our users' needs by tracking engagement and retention. Only when we had metrics we were proud of, we decided to go out of waitlist & do a public launch (especially on Product Hunt) in April 2022. We've been product of the day, of the month, and nominated product of the year. At this time, we raised additional capital ($6.5m) with angels and funds, to start accelerating.

The team during the first Product Hunt launch

We started charging customers in september 2022, per seat model. Before that, we were doing things in a very artisanal way - using Stripe payment links to make teams pay. Payments wasn't integrated in the product. It's the moment I had the feeling we were becoming a real business, and optimizing for revenue that we were sharing on Slack every morning.

In sept 22, we knew we had a product we could start scaling, with payment integrated and where users/teams could onboard themselves self-serve. We needed to move beyond our organic circle, and start looking at distribution strategies that could scale.

We thought deeply about the way B2B buyers are choosing their tools, and especially CRMs. Our intuitions were: - People rely a lot on communities to buy. When looking for a CRM, they will look on Reddits, Slack channels, Whatsapp groups they might be part of. Having presence in these groups will help. - Reinsurance & social proof matter a lot. "You never get fired for chosing IBM", and CRM is so central in the stack of businesses. We needed to reinsure people. - People buy more from other people than from brands. We needed to have faces that will represent the business.

Based on that, the channels where we invested heavily: - Influence - working with micro-influencers especially on Linkedin - SEO - to be a solution people find out when searching on Google - Affiliates - to amplify our echo with experts (eg sales coaches, sales agencies) that will share folk with their audience on owned channels

We believe in distribution about having a small number of high conviction bets. It takes time before the investment in a channel start to pay-off. So you need to go for it with conviction and care. I believe it matters a lot to chose your channels intentionally, and keep investing long enough until you can see satisfying results.

The metric we have always been optimizing for is CAC payback. New businesses challenge is always cash, so optimizing for how fast your reimburse your CAC makes sense. We try to be at 6 months CAC payback for the overall business, and given organic makes about 50% of our revenue, we want paid channels to be below 12 months payback.

Kyle Bigley started TxtCart after realizing the untapped potential in SMS marketing during his dropshipping days in college. He launched the AI-powered SMS marketing company in 2019, generating $1M ARR while still bootstrapped, and is on track for $3M ARR by 2026.

The founders started building TxtCart by first assembling a technical team: the non-technical founder connected with a CTO and then a third developer via personal networking. They focused on building an MVP for SMS cart recovery, completing it in approximately four months, including development and Shopify app submission (which itself took 4–6 weeks). Development was lean and budget-conscious, with some creative and UI/UX work handled by freelancers found on platforms like Fiverr (for which they spent around $1,260). The very first version was functional, focusing solely on the core task (SMS cart recovery) and prioritizing working software over polished design. A key challenge was balancing speed of delivery and minimal resources, but being “good enough” proved sufficient for the early stage; the app grew significantly before any major UI update.

Facebook (Meta) Ads TxtCart initially relied on Facebook (Meta) Ads to reach Shopify merchants and ecommerce entrepreneurs, targeting SMBs and dropshippers. This generated awareness and drove installs, leveraging Meta’s targeting and retargeting capabilities. Why it worked: Meta's broad reach and granular targeting enabled cost-effective acquisition of early users, especially newer ecommerce operators.

Shopify App Store Ads They capitalized on the then-new Shopify App Store Ads soon after launch, bidding on high-intent keywords like “SMS.” Early adoption before the channel became crowded made ads very effective, with early clicks costing under $10 (now as high as $75 per click). Why it worked: Being early let them attract users actively seeking SMS solutions, leading to high app listing visibility and strong installs at sustainable costs.

Influencer Marketing & YouTube As ad costs rose, TxtCart increasingly invested in influencer marketing and YouTube sponsorships to reach ecommerce operators through trusted content creators. This shift supplemented direct paid ads and enhanced word of mouth. Why it worked: Social proof and community endorsements carried extra weight for their SMB audience, fueling credibility and organic reach.

PLG, Word of Mouth & Affiliates TxtCart benefited from product-led growth, strong word of mouth within the Shopify ecosystem, and affiliate partnerships. Satisfied clients—especially those seeing measurable ROI—shared results and referred others, while affiliate commissions incentivized promotion. Why it worked: Refer-a-friend and affiliate strategies scale with happy users, compounding growth without proportional marketing spend.

AI-powered platform for professional headshots from selfies.

After a varied career including a failed coffee bar, a marketing agency stint, and multiple small ventures, Ricardo Ghekiere's lightbulb moment came post a night out in Spain. Teaming up with Miguel Rasero, who had found success with Minecraft servers and AI projects, they transformed BetterPic.io, growing it from $1,500 to $20,000 in monthly revenues by July 2024.

Building BetterPic's product was a complex yet innovative process primarily focused on utilizing AI technology for creating professional headshots from selfies. Initially, Miguel Rasero worked alone, developing the AI model using open-source tools like Stable Diffusion, building with his proficiency in Python and JavaScript. Early development involved rigorous testing and iterations on text-to-image models, image processing, pipeline optimization, and advanced training methods, resulting in gradual improvement of the AI's ability to produce quality headshots. The first prototype faced challenges, especially in achieving realistic facial resemblance and texture details, which took three months to reach acceptable quality. The tech stack included Vue 3 (Nuxt) for the frontend, Supabase for authentication, PostgreSQL for the database, Vercel for deployment, and Node.js for the backend. Despite launching incomplete before a vacation, the experience taught valuable lessons in rapid problem-solving under pressure, highlighting the chaotic but rewarding journey of a solo founder deploying a cutting-edge product.

SEO

BetterPic focused on search engine optimization (SEO) from the start, producing content and building links to improve visibility in search results. They targeted specific keywords like 'studio AI headshots,' improving their Google rankings over time. Despite some setbacks, such as temporarily losing their ranking for 'AI headshot generator,' they persevered and regained positions. This strategy gradually increased their monthly organic revenue.

Why it worked: Customers were actively searching for AI-generated headshots and related services. By optimizing their website for popular search terms and consistently improving their content strategy, BetterPic captured organic traffic, which was crucial for their low average order value business model.

Pinterest

BetterPic leveraged Pinterest as an unconventional yet effective marketing channel. By posting over 100 headshot images on their Pinterest page, they amassed 750,000+ impressions. This approach drove significant traffic to their site without incurring direct costs.

Why it worked: Pinterest is a visual platform, ideal for showcasing headshots. It attracted users interested in visual content, leading to increased brand visibility and website visits. The approach was creative and leveraged an untapped marketing avenue for BetterPic's type of service.

Pricing Strategy

To increase the average order value, BetterPic adjusted their pricing strategy. They raised the price of their basic package from $25 to $29, making the $35 package appear more attractive. This change resulted in a 400% sales increase of the $35 package.

Why it worked: By strategically altering their pricing tiers, BetterPic nudged customers toward a higher value package without making significant changes to the offerings themselves. This psychological pricing tactic effectively increased revenue per customer.

Philipp, a product manager in Switzerland, created SEO Kickstarter as he struggled to get traffic for his shared flat site without using ads. Frustrated by the manual effort of backlink outreach, he automated the process and launched a guide, now boasting $5K MRR.

The initial version of SEO Kickstarter was created through extensive manual SEO research and streamlining of the findings into a digital, user-friendly format. The founder started by analyzing the backlink profiles of startups using Python scripts with Playwright automation — leading to 4000+ lines of code that accelerated domain research to under three minutes per site. After expanding the database to 200 domains, he curated a list of effective, easy-to-get backlinks, verifying each for submission requirements and value, which involved several weeks of manual work (including taking a week off from his main job for uninterrupted focus).

All research was consolidated into a Notion guide, allowing for simple delivery and customer usage, while fulfillment was handled via Notion’s templates. Payment and email workflows were integrated using Stripe and Postmark respectively, and the landing page was built with TailwindUI. The first prototype (the Notion guide) reached working form roughly one month after the start of focused research and iteration. Major challenges included initial discouragement from low beta feedback and overcoming inexperience in copywriting, requiring numerous landing page iterations before reaching final form.

Twitter (now X) The founder consistently posted daily for 1.5 years about his progress, research, and product development, growing his following to 3,000+ prior to launch. The launch tweet alone received over 100,000 views and drove the first 87 sales within one day. Why it worked: Building in public and engaging transparently established trust and a direct audience eager for his solution, resulting in high early conversion.

Affiliate Program He set up a generous 40% revenue-share affiliate program, attracting 3 skilled affiliates—one of whom created a TikTok video (not from the founder) that reached 730,000 views and drove substantial sales. Affiliates now account for about 50% of all sales. Why it worked: Affiliates essentially became an extension of the marketing team, leveraging their own audiences and creativity for product promotion.

Word of Mouth & Testimonials Positive customer results and ongoing support led to organic recommendations, including SEO agencies advising clients to buy the guide. Collecting and prominently displaying testimonials further helped boost conversions. Why it worked: These endorsements increased trust and leveraged satisfied customers to drive new purchases with minimal additional spend.

Google Sheets-Notion syncing tool for seamless data integration.

Leandro, a former freelance software developer from Buenos Aires, pivoted from freelancing to building Sync2Sheets, a tool syncing Notion databases with Google Sheets. Launched rapidly in just two weeks, the product now boasts $9k MRR and over 400 paying customers, including Canva and Wix.

The first version of Sync2Sheets was built by repurposing code from a previous project that synced data from Mercado Libre to Google Sheets, adapting it to work with the new Notion API shortly after its release. The core technology stack included Firebase for hosting, cloud functions, and Firestore to power the backend and API, which fit naturally with Google Workspace Add-ons. For the user experience, a significant effort went into mapping Notion database properties to Google Sheets, using features like conditional formatting and data validation to mimic Notion's display and interactivity within Sheets, while ensuring edits or column reordering by users would not disrupt syncing. Development of the MVP took just two weeks from start to store submission, but a major last-minute bug was discovered in production where the last row would be overwritten—this required a quick fix just before launch. The final steps involved OAuth review and marketplace submission, which the founder noted as an involved process.

Reddit and Facebook Groups The founder actively posted tutorials and product videos in Notion-related Facebook groups and the r/Notion subreddit, as well as replied to relevant questions using alerts from F5Bot to mention Sync2Sheets when appropriate. This channel generated early visibility and around 15 installs per day in the initial stage. Why it worked: Leveraging engaged communities let Sync2Sheets target users who had a clear need for Notion-Sheets integration, driving qualified initial traffic and installs.

YouTube SEO After observing that the search results for "Notion Google Sheets" were mostly video, the founder produced a targeted YouTube tutorial. This video was specifically designed for people searching for those keywords and led to noticeable referral traffic. Why it worked: Video search demand was high for this use case, so directly addressing keyword intent with a demo video captured ready-to-convert users.

Removing the Free Plan A year after launch, Sync2Sheets removed its free plan and switched to a paid-only product with a trial period. This change resulted in sign-ups rising from 15 to over 40 paying customers a month and reduced churn because users were less likely to cancel without a free fallback. Why it worked: By requiring payment for ongoing use, only genuinely interested customers converted, improving both revenue and retention.

Automated lead generation for agency owners and solopreneurs.

After selling their first software company and facing intense burnout, Chris Baden and his partners identified two key pain points—finding quality leads and ensuring consistency—through interviews with 40 business owners. Combining their sales expertise with Bruno Domingues' automation, they transformed FlowChat into a tool now generating over $1 million in annual revenue.

Building the first version of FlowChat was a challenging yet rewarding process, characterized by a hands-on and iterative approach. Initially, the team relied on a manual system involving a complex, multi-step process to extract data from Facebook and input it into the nascent platform. Potential customers had to follow a convoluted sequence of actions, such as entering the website's "back end" to add leads—illustrating the early technical hurdles they needed to overcome. This manual setup revealed critical insights as they personally assisted each customer, which allowed them to command higher upfront fees and gather valuable feedback quickly. Over the course of three months, Bruno Domingues, a key technical partner, enhanced these processes with quick and efficient development, rapidly replacing manual methods with an automated system. This journey highlighted the importance of doing unscalable work initially to deeply understand customer needs and refine the product before automating and scaling the solution.

Social Media Direct Messaging

FlowChat has capitalized heavily on the power of direct messages to drive leads and sales across 13 different social media platforms. Their flagship product focuses on automating social media workflows, allowing businesses to import leads from sources like Facebook groups and engage with them directly. The strategy of leveraging direct messaging aligns with their goal of creating personalized interactions that can feel more genuine, which often leads to higher conversion rates. Direct messages can effectively nurture leads and drive sales, particularly in B2B contexts where relationship-building is crucial.

Why it worked: The use of direct messaging as an acquisition channel taps into personal engagement, maintaining the human touch in automated workflows. This approach works because it allows businesses to connect directly with potential leads, cultivating relationships that are more likely to convert. The customized scripts and processes create structured yet seemingly organic interactions, making it easier to convert cold leads into clients.

Organic Lead Generation

FlowChat generated significant traction through organic lead generation, particularly for agency owners and solopreneurs. By focusing on quality organic leads, the company has been able to secure high-value customers without the added cost of paid advertising channels. The company's free resources and structured sales processes have proven effective in nurturing leads through inbound and outbound channels.

Why it worked: Organic lead generation is valuable because it often attracts leads who are genuinely interested in the service. Moreover, organic leads can result in higher engagement and better customer retention. FlowChat's method of offering free valuable resources serves as a lead magnet, nurturing trust and interest before a purchase decision is made, ultimately leading to deeper customer relationships and cost-effective growth.

Founder's Membership & Challenges

FlowChat utilized the concept of a "Founder's Membership" to drive initial traction. This exclusive offer provided early adopters with special pricing and personal access to the company founders. Later on, they implemented challenges that guide potential customers through a structured journey, offering highly focused results over a short period.

Why it worked: These tactics create a sense of exclusivity and urgency, motivating early users to purchase while providing valuable feedback for the company to refine its offerings. The challenges also help by integrating the customer journey from start to finish, enhancing customer satisfaction and increasing the likelihood of repeat business. This approach not only brings in new customers but also keeps them engaged for the long term.

Text-to-video automation for effortless content repurposing.

Ash, a Chartered Accountant turned content entrepreneur, launched Repurpose Pie after his co-founder paid $500/month to a video editor for converting tweets to videos. Spotting a lucrative pain point, the team built software to automate this process, achieving $75,000 annual recurring revenue within a week.

The Repurpose Pie founders began by quickly assembling a minimal viable product to validate demand. The front end was built with ReactJS and hosted using AWS Amplify, while the backend was implemented in Python, handling video creation and automation; videos were stored on AWS S3. Building the initial backend took four to six weeks due to its complexity, while the front end took just two or three days, sacrificing polish for speed. The first prototype wasn't feature-rich—it could convert tweets to videos with AI-generated voiceovers and customizable backgrounds—and iterations were shaped directly by feedback from early adopters, who received their videos via Telegram. Challenges included integrating high-quality generative AI voices (switching providers after user critique), implementing voice cloning for personal brands, and dealing with an underperforming web designer that delayed the main launch by over a month.

X/Twitter Influencer Marketing
The team leveraged their own and their early adopters' X followings to promote Repurpose Pie by sharing testimonials and product results, including from accounts with up to 500,000+ followers.
Why it worked: Direct promotion from trusted voices in the creator space provided strong social proof and targeted exactly the audience the product served—leading to both high conversion and credibility.

Waitlist & Email Marketing
They grew a waitlist of over 1,000 people using a basic Carrd site and Google Forms, then nurtured the list with regular updates and launch anticipation emails. At launch, a sequence of 10+ emails in one week resulted in rapid paid conversions.
Why it worked: Building excitement and maintaining active communication kept the audience warm and ready to buy, resulting in fast monetization and exceeding $5,000 MRR in just three days post-launch.

Direct Outreach to Influencers
Before public release, they reached out to 100+ X influencers with a personalized pitch and product demo, converting about 50% to paid early adopters, who also provided testimonials and feedback.
Why it worked: Early access and personal pitches to power users turned influential creators into initial customers and evangelists, which validated the product and generated word-of-mouth growth.

"Omnichannel marketing automation platform for personalized brand campaigns."

their revenue. Diversify your client base and focus on providing value to your customers. Additionally, prioritize feedback from clients and use it to improve and iterate on your product.

The initial version of Mindbox was built in 2009 as a customer data platform for retailers, developed after first-hand experience helping clients with marketing promotions and websites. The founders chose the .NET / C# technology stack, mainly due to familiarity and prior success with these tools, which streamlined both development and iteration. The first working prototype centered on creating a unified database of retail promotion participants, complete with UI access for various user roles (hotline operators, field staff, etc.), integrating and normalizing data from multiple sources, implementing prize draw logic, and building custom reporting features. Development was funded out-of-pocket, with about $30,000 invested, and client feedback played a critical role in shaping which features were built or prioritized, given the lack of external funding. Notable challenges included managing highly custom client feature requests (which later increased support costs) and maintaining focus on only building features that clients were willing to pay for upfront.

Founder-Led Direct Sales In the early years, the founder personally handled sales, pitching the product directly to prospective clients, often with highly customized solutions for each.
Why it worked: This hands-on approach allowed immediate feedback loops with clients and ensured cash flow by only building features that buyers were willing to pay for.

Word of Mouth & Expert Positioning Over time, Mindbox consultants gained recognition as industry experts by putting client value above company revenue, even recommending competitors if it better suited client needs. This approach created strong word-of-mouth referrals and consistent inbound leads from clients who trusted Mindbox’s honesty and expertise.
Why it worked: Building a reputation for unbiased advice and expertise fostered trust, making existing clients key sources of new customer acquisition.

Educational Content & Case Studies Mindbox focused communications on sharing customer success stories and providing educational/research content via their blog and other channels. Rather than self-promotion, they highlighted how clients used Mindbox to achieve results and produced actionable material for marketers.
Why it worked: Demonstrating real client outcomes attracted similar businesses looking for proven solutions, while educational materials built credibility and nurtured a knowledgeable user base.

Michael Moss, co-founder of NOVA A.I, had a passion for creating and building solutions from a young age. After conducting countless interviews and realizing the pain points in video editing, Moss and his team pivoted their initial idea to create an online video editing platform that offers both basic and advanced tools accessible to everyone. With a user base of over 100,000 and an impressive growth rate of 50% per month, NOVA A.I is revolutionizing the video editing industry.

The NOVA A.I. team began by building various digital mockups, allowing users to click through potential workflows and tools to validate user needs before writing full code. They relied on prototypes and conducted user interviews with both individuals and professional media businesses, iteratively adjusting their design and functionality based on feedback from 500–700 interviews. Heatmap analytics were used to observe user interactions with mockups, further informing UI/UX decisions. The process from initial mockups to a working MVP took approximately six months, focusing only on essential features that solved immediate user pain points. The main challenges involved prioritizing the right features and ensuring the minimum product was still lovable and useful, rather than falling into the trap of overbuilding or misallocating resources.

SEO NOVA A.I. assembled a dedicated SEO team of three, investing significant effort into article writing and continuous on-site optimization. Over one year, this grew their reach from zero to over 1 million impressions and 100,000 unique visitors per month. Why it worked: Sustained content production targeted high-intent search terms and drove organic discovery, fueling compounding traffic growth at minimal cost.

Referral Program They implemented a program where users received two free hours of subtitle generation for each friend referred, directly mirroring Dropbox’s early viral strategy. This created a strong incentive for existing users to invite others, helping lower customer acquisition costs to nearly zero. Why it worked: The referral offer was closely tied to core product value, encouraging word-of-mouth and activating viral network effects among content creators.

ProductHunt Launch NOVA A.I. launched on ProductHunt, leveraging the platform’s tech-minded community to gain visibility and acquire early adopters. This spike in attention provided initial traction and valuable user feedback. Why it worked: ProductHunt’s audience is especially engaged with new SaaS tools, making it a cost-effective launchpad for initial momentum and buzz.

YouTube Product Demos They use YouTube to share product demonstrations, highlighting new features and workflows for potential users searching for video-editing solutions. Why it worked: Seeing functionality in action lowers barriers to trial and establishes credibility for users evaluating alternatives.

Vlad Verba came up with the idea for Global Entry Alerts while he was applying for Global Entry himself and noticed long wait times for interview appointments. He initially created a free Twitter page that alerted people when appointments became available, and eventually expanded to offer a paid SMS alert service. Today, Global Entry Alerts makes over $1,200 per month in profit and has gained traction through Twitter, Reddit, and organic shares from travel influencers.

The initial product began as a simple free Twitter feed that automatically tweeted about Global Entry interview openings. To move from this basic version to a paid, personalized SMS alert service, the founder relied on a stack he was comfortable with: Python and PostgreSQL for backend automation and data, while opting for a premade website template from htmlrev.com for the front end to speed up delivery. Integrations with Stripe enabled secure payment collection, and Twilio's API was used to send SMS messages to subscribers, both of which required learning and some time spent on YouTube tutorials. The first working paid prototype was completed after iterative learning and building, with a special emphasis on shipping quickly even if not everything was perfect. The main challenges were the founder's lack of prior experience in deploying production-quality software and the learning curve of integrating multiple third-party services, making the process longer than he’d hoped.

Twitter The service’s primary user acquisition channel is its automated Twitter account (@AlertEntry), which tweets new Global Entry appointments as they appear. The account acts as both a utility (free alerts) and a funnel, directing interested users to sign up for paid, personalized SMS notifications via the website link in the bio. Why it worked: The Twitter feed solved a real-time need for a specific audience, making it highly shareable and discoverable within relevant travel communities, and lowering the cost of user acquisition.

Influencer Referrals Travel influencers, notably The Points Guy and others, have organically shared or mentioned Global Entry Alerts on their platforms, driving spikes in website traffic and sales shortly after these recommendations. Why it worked: Influencer word-of-mouth from trusted sources increased credibility and exposed the service to highly qualified potential customers at scale.

Reddit & Travel Forums Posts on subreddits and Facebook travel groups helped spread awareness among users actively seeking Global Entry solutions. Whether critical or supportive, engagement in these spaces led to useful feedback and additional organic sign-ups. Why it worked: These communities concentrate users facing the exact pain point Global Entry Alerts addresses, so even a single helpful post can lead to a measurable uptick in interested buyers.

Alexandre Abu-Jamra, the founder of K-Looks, came up with the idea for his business when he was working as an M&A advisor and struggled to find financial data for private companies. He realized that this was a common problem in the finance industry and saw an opportunity to solve it by organizing and standardizing unstructured financial data from messy pdf files. After overcoming technical challenges and securing a client with Capital IQ, the largest private financial data aggregator, K-Looks has experienced triple-digit annual growth and generated $600k in revenue in 2022.

Klooks built its initial product by developing custom web-crawling robots and creating a structured data indexing process, focusing primarily on cleaning and organizing data from complex PDF financial statements. The team encountered significant challenges with existing OCR technology, as it often failed with the misalignment of lines and figures, critical for accurate credit analyses. To overcome this, they established a quality assurance team that used Google Sheets for its flexibility and customization, iterating rapidly to refine the process without extensive development costs. This manual yet flexible approach enabled them to implement over a hundred automated quality checks, helping achieve error-proof and scalable data extraction. Building the first version wasn't easy and required constant iteration and improvisation, especially with adapting to non-standard document inputs and ensuring data accuracy was paramount in their solution.

Newsletters

Klooks effectively utilizes newsletters to attract prospects to their SaaS platform. By focusing on high-quality content, particularly client business cases or examples of their data's market intelligence, they manage to engage existing and potential clients. When the newsletter content hits the mark, it leads to more new contracts and good quality leads, indicating that their content has resonated well with the audience.

Why it worked: Newsletters allow for direct engagement with interested parties and can be a slower but more organic growth path than traditional advertising. They provide a platform for showcasing how the product can solve real client problems, which helps in attracting and retaining customers.

Referral Marketing & Outbound Sales

For their Financial Statements Spreading Service and Data as a Service, Klooks relies heavily on word-of-mouth and outbound sales. This approach has proven effective in acquiring clients, especially considering their high-touch and bespoke offerings that require a direct sales approach.

Why it worked: Word-of-mouth leverages existing customer satisfaction to naturally expand the customer base. Outbound sales, though not scalable as advertising, allow for direct connections with potential clients, especially in a niche market where personalization and direct engagement are crucial for conversions.

Customer Segmentation and Personalized Communication

Klooks has developed an advanced customer retention strategy by segmenting their clients into different personas and use cases. They monitor client usage closely and create personalized content aimed at increasing usage or reviving interest. Customized content sent to clients decreases churn and shows clients the potential further applications of Klooks' solutions for their businesses.

Why it worked: This method allows Klooks to address the specific needs and potential pain points of various customer segments, ensuring that content is relevant and engaging. By showing clients how else they might use their services, Klooks not only provides value but also reminds clients of the product's versatility and applicability. It's a proactive way to manage customer retention, ensuring clients remain engaged and find continual value in the service.

He took on some freelance work that required generating PDFs during the pandemic. While there were various online services available for this task, he found that none of them offered a user-friendly template editor. As a result, he decided to develop my PDF generation services with a template editor.

Decided to build a product around 4 ideas:

• Only do one thing and not try to be an “all-in-one” solution
• Be able to be built in 3 months
• Target B2B market
• Subscription-based

Purchased a SaaS boilerplate for $300 to keep the development timeline within 3 months. The SaaS boilerplate included modules like user management, payment integration, and libraries.

Full time, took 3 months to build the initial product, and 9 months later released the newest flagship product.

Took 9 months to $15K/MRR.

SEO has been the main source of traffic for our services. Created blog posts on a monthly basis to boost visibility on the search engine results pages, making it easier for customers to find their services.

Hey, my name is Niklas Dorn and I'm the CEO and co-founder of Filestage. We started the company in 2015 after realizing how messy and complicated the feedback process was for agencies and marketing teams when it comes to content creation. Our software makes it easy for teams to share, comment, and approve any digital content, and today we have over 600 customers and 50,000 users worldwide.

Before writing a single line of code for Filestage, the team conducted interviews with over 30 professionals from the film and marketing industries to gather crucial insights. They used these insights to develop the first prototype, which was a simple tool allowing users to share and comment on videos directly in the browser. The founders did not have a technical background, so this process involved considerable learning and iteration, focusing heavily on user feedback to refine and improve features consistently. Building the initial version was challenging, given resource constraints and the need for numerous iterations based on user input, but this meticulous process of testing and iteration laid a strong foundation for the product's future development.

Content Marketing

Filestage initially focused on creating educational content to attract potential customers. They published articles centered around project management, marketing, and video production, each linking to other relevant pages on their site. These efforts helped generate traffic and automated new sign-ups.

Why it worked: By creating in-depth and valuable content that addressed the needs and concerns of their target audience, Filestage established authority and trust. This approach also improved their SEO, allowing them to reach customers actively searching for solutions in content review and approval.

Outbound Sales

During Filestage's early days, they employed an outbound sales strategy by reaching out directly to potential customers, such as agencies and production firms. They positioned themselves as a startup seeking professional feedback, which facilitated initial customer acquisitions.

Why it worked: Direct outreach allowed Filestage to personally engage with potential clients and gather valuable feedback while offering a personalized touch that was appreciated by their early adopters. However, this strategy was primarily effective in the beginning and less so as they scaled.

Viral Product Effects

Filestage capitalized on the inherent virality of their software as an essential tool for team collaboration and content approval. Satisfied users naturally shared the tool with teammates and other companies, leading to word-of-mouth growth.

Why it worked: The collaborative nature of Filestage’s product encouraged sharing among team members and externally, harnessing organic growth through user recommendations and referrals.

Software Comparison Platforms

Filestage utilized platforms like G2 and Capterra to reach new customers. These comparison sites provided visibility among users actively looking for software solutions in content review, thereby steering prospects toward Filestage.

Why it worked: By leveraging the credibility of well-established software comparison platforms, Filestage gained access to targeted audiences already interested in such tools, improving their chances of conversion through third-party validation.

Julien Nahum, founder of NotionForms, came up with the idea for his business after discovering the API release of Notion, a productivity software. As a huge fan of Notion, he wanted to build something with the API and decided to create a form builder integration that offers advanced features specifically for Notion users. Since its launch, NotionForms has gained 26k users, 850 paid subscribers, and generates an ARR of $182k.

The founder built the initial version of NoteForms solo, leveraging a tech stack he had used for previous web projects. Development was focused on quick shipping: the MVP was built in just four days, without any formal product validation or market research. He utilized his own SaaS starter template, existing coding experience, and prioritized integrating with Notion's newly released public API, while leaving out complex form features like logic and multi-page forms. The first version was basic, with a simple UI and several bugs, but functioned well enough for early feedback and usage. Core challenges included meeting the high expectations of users familiar with other form tools and building robust Notion integration quickly, but having prior experience with the tech stack minimized delays or surprises.

Product Viral Loop (Embedded Branding & Sharing) When users created forms, each form carried a “Powered by NotionForms” label, and as forms were shared publicly or on websites, new users discovered NoteForms passively. This led to a highly viral acquisition model: according to the founder, over 55% of new users came from this loop, including word of mouth from friends or colleagues. Why it worked: Each form acted as a mini advertisement, continuously exposing the product to fresh potential users with zero extra spend.

Community Promotion (Notion Groups & Social Media) At launch, the founder actively shared NoteForms in Notion-focused Facebook groups, Reddit communities, and on Twitter, targeting engaged Notion users. Because the product was free from the start, these posts were well received and further fueled organic awareness. Why it worked: Communities powered by Notion enthusiasts rapidly amplified the product to early adopters already searching for workflow solutions.

SEO & Content Though formal blog content production began later, backlinks were generated organically whenever users embedded forms on their websites. A help center and YouTube tutorial videos (with a combined 13k+ views) also provided supporting content. Why it worked: The passively generated backlinks increased search engine visibility, while detailed support content helped onboard users and reduce churn.

Product Hunt Launch A few months post-launch, the founder listed NoteForms on Product Hunt, where it became Product of the Day and received a Maker Grant. Why it worked: Product Hunt offered credible social proof and a surge of exposure to a technology-focused audience keen on new productivity tools.