For bootstrappers, how do you grow without paid ads?
I don’t have a big budget for ads, so growth can feel like a slow grind. But some of the most successful bootstrapped startups found creative ways to get traction without spending a dime on marketing.
Some focus on content and SEO, others leverage community-driven strategies, and some build in public to generate organic interest. Some even rely entirely on referrals, virality, or partnerships to scale.
If you’ve grown your product without paid acquisition, what worked best for you? Any underrated strategies that made a big difference?
@hussein_r @dan_difr I am the mod of r/GrowthHacking. You're welcome to post there. 62000 members // 1M+ views per year :)
@hussein_r it's an interesting product, Graphify. reminds me of the Obsidian's graph.
the only thing is that if it takes off in any meaningful way, Notion will spin up their own thing, which will be lethal to your biz I suspect
@taniabell Thanks, Tania! You're absolutely right, the graph view in Obsidian was definitely the inspiration. It was the one feature I always felt was missing in Notion. Of course, there's a chance Notion could introduce something similar, but people have been asking for it for years and nothing's happened yet, so who knows?
If Graphify really takes off, I could imagine exploring options like selling it to Notion or finding ways to differentiate through better execution. Given how big Notion is, they tend to be pretty slow with updates. But honestly, I'm not worried, I'm just enjoying the process. It's really rewarding to see more people signing up every day and hearing how the app is helping them. 😊
There's a phrase in Silicon Valley: "Eat your own dog food if you can." It means using your own product to prove its value. Back when I built my first SaaS, we did exactly that to grow it.
@rohanrecommends That’s a great point, Rohan! I’ll definitely give that a shot. I’ve been thinking about using this strategy on Twitter, showing how I actually use Graphify myself to provide value while also growing the product. Should be interesting to see how it plays out! 🚀