"Culinary info hub for professional chefs."

AI meeting assistant for automated note-taking.

Premium business outputs without bloated software workflows

Since we began testing Stackero in January, growth has been very intentional and founder-led. I knew this was not the type of product people would fully understand from one generic launch post or ad. They needed to see the tools, understand the use cases, and connect Stackero to a problem they were already trying to solve.The first strategy was direct outreach. Instead of sending the same message to everyone, I started matching people to the specific tool that fit their situation. If someone was struggling with pricing, I sent them a short video walkthrough of a pricing or offer tool. If someone was trying to improve a landing page, I showed them the grader. If someone was thinking about freelancing or consulting, I pointed them toward tools for ICP, positioning, offers, and planning. That worked because it felt useful, not like a pitch.I also used email to follow up with people who had tried tools, requested credits, or showed interest. The emails were simple and practical: here is what Stackero does, here is where to start, and here is the tool I would recommend based on what you are working on.Another key driver has been our referral program. Stackero is built for people who know other people trying to grow businesses, start freelance work, run agencies, consult, market, sell, or build something of their own. Referrals work well because the product is easier to trust when it comes from someone who has already seen the output and understands the value.One of the more personal growth strategies has been offering free credits to people affected by layoffs, job instability, or the broken hiring market who are trying to start freelance, consulting, fractional, creator, or small business work. That program is not just a marketing tactic. It reflects why I built Stackero in the first place: to lower the barrier for people who need practical tools, clearer strategy, and a faster way to get moving without another expensive platform in their way.I also started testing communities like Reddit, Slack groups, and founder/operator spaces. The approach there is not to drop links and disappear. It is to answer real questions, share useful frameworks, and mention Stackero only when it genuinely fits the problem. If someone asks about pricing, positioning, landing pages, sales plans, or growth, that is a natural opening to say, “Here is how I would think about it, and here is a tool that can help.”The biggest lesson is that specific beats broad. “Check out my startup” is weak. “You mentioned your offer is not converting, here is a tool that can help you diagnose why” is much stronger.My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to stop thinking of growth as one big channel and start thinking of it as a series of trust-building moments. Show people the product. Send personalized examples. Make it obvious where they should start. And before you spend heavily on ads, prove that real people understand the value enough to use it, share it, and pay for it.

Exclusive lifestyle management ecosystem

We did test a consumer-facing product early on, and as we suspected, it didn't work. Plenty of people were curious about the idea of an app that automates parts of a high-end lifestyle — but very few of them were actually dealing with the problem we were built to solve. Consumer marketing brought in the wrong kind of people for us: interested in the concept, not invested in the problem.The shift came when we moved to institutions — private banks, brokerages, family offices. They already have the clients. They already have a trust relationship. They just aren't serving those clients at the lifestyle layer. We become the infrastructure they offer under their own brand.B2B sales are generally longer than B2C sales but the end contracts are much more valuable and the churn rate is virtually non-existent. We sell to institutions; they, in turn, deliver the service to their customers — so we don't need to spend on advertising to end users at all. Our clients don't respond to ads, instead, they respond to reputation. The channels that have worked for us are earned media, articles, interviews, and being in the right rooms.One thing I'd tell any early-stage founder: figure out which channel actually has a signal for your business, and then do that one thing extremely well until it works. We spent months building out a couple of consumer-facing approaches before accepting they weren't going to work for us. The lesson was to stop spreading effort across channels that look promising and concentrate everything on the one that's actually moving.

How we turned $0-out-of-pocket community cards into recurring revenue

Over time, our business has evolved from running postcards ourselves to building a membership where we teach others how to do the same. It’s been an honor to watch entrepreneurs across the country take what we’ve built and create their own success stories. Sharing knowledge has become one of our biggest passions.To grow our membership, we’ve leaned heavily into a strategy we call OPA—Other People’s Audiences. Instead of trying to build everything from scratch, we’ve put ourselves in front of audiences that were already aligned with what we do. For example, we’ve been featured on two podcasts so far, both of which created massive exposure for our community. One of the highlights was appearing on our favorite YouTuber’s podcast—the very person who influenced part of our original idea. That episode alone reached nearly 30,000 people who were already interested in marketing, side hustles, and entrepreneurship. Many of them joined our membership because they saw firsthand how powerful the system could be.Beyond podcasts, we’ve used YouTube videos, social media, and six Meetup groups we own, totaling over 10,000 members. Sending regular email blasts to these groups has allowed us to connect with motivated entrepreneurs who are already looking for community and proven ways to grow. What readers can take away from this is simple: you don’t always need a massive audience of your own to grow your business. If you can find ways to get in front of the right people through OPA—whether that’s podcasts, newsletters, local groups, or collaborations—you can shortcut years of effort.Our recommendation to aspiring entrepreneurs: Focus less on building the biggest audience possible and more on finding the right audiences to share your story with. Partner with people who already have the trust of the community you want to serve. Not only will you gain exposure, but you’ll also build credibility much faster.

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Men's Skincare - Chemist Founded.

One of the biggest things that worked for us (it has since been deleted) was a gigantic reddit reference guide teaching men about skincare with several product recommendations. I disclosed my brand in that post, but never pushed it and I offered several alternatives. This ended up going to the top of Google for months and that got us tons of traffic. All good things must come to an end and at some point the subreddit moderator changed and the new one decided he didn't like the post and deleted it. Killing a lot of our organic traffic. In my head I knew to diversify our revenue streams and think proactively about things like losing traffic sources, but I didn't prioritize it enough. So when this stream was removed, it was a big painful lesson.Then outside of that the biggest thing for us has been Amazon with ads. The key with that was making sure everything was very quality looking. This took a lot of learning because I have done everything myself for the brand. Photography, videos, website, formulation, manufacturing, fulfillment. I just found that I could do everything better than anyone who isn't elite at what they do and those are the people who tend to be out of our price range.For anyone looking to grow their business, I would say it's helpful to really evaluate your space, look at your competitors and think what you can do better than them. I know that I am more knowledgeable than any of my competitors and none of them can communicate directly with their customers like I can. So I look at ways to do that through reddit and now we are working on video via short form content.

Fastest Growing Eyewear Brand in the UK

We’ve grown Specscart by staying laser-focused on solving real problems because I personally faced them. Unlike many startups that chase “brand” status from day one, our mission was always about solving customer pain points. That’s why we introduced innovations like 24-hour dispatch for prescription glasses, a Free Try At Home service, and a transparent pricing model.Early growth came from the local Mancunian community, who truly championed our vision. Word-of-mouth played a huge role. People were excited to support a local business that was doing something different, and they became our flag bearers.We also invested in organic SEO from the beginning, making sure people could find us when they searched for affordable, stylish glasses online. We used social media (mainly Facebook and Instagram) to connect with people, showcase our frames, and tell our story. The recognition of our work in prestigious lists by publications like Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe and the Sunday Times Seven Ones to Watch allowed us to take our story to the masses.Entrepreneurs should always focus on solving problems first. Your customers will notice, and they’ll help you grow. For aspiring entrepreneurs, I’d say listen more than you speak, build trust with value, and never underestimate the power of local support.

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