3 builders who never spoke to each other

Sequence the channels by the size you are at

Different levers work at different scales: organic content until the audience exists, then collaborations and partnerships, then virality and direct sales, with paid acquisition last. One-off spikes are expensive relative to what they return, while recurring publishing and referral arrangements compound.

The method

1. 01

   Match the growth lever to the size you are at: organic content up to the first thousand subscribers, then partnerships and collaborations, then virality, then direct sales, and only add paid ads past fifteen thousand.

2. 02

   Exhaust organic search and in-product virality before you touch paid ads, marketplace listings, channel partners or outbound.

3. 03

   One off spikes, launches and advertising among them, are expensive relative to what they return. Recurring content and affiliate work are what compound.

What it returned

• $20

  Yong-Soo Chung, who has built his holding company to $20 million, runs First Class Founders on this five-lever model and keeps earlier levers running so they compound.

• 40%

  Across leading self-serve companies including Airtable, Miro, Snyk, Webflow and Zapier, search accounts for 40% of new users and virality for 16%, so 56% between them.

• After trying Facebook ads, Instagram story ads, giveaways, referral schemes and seasonal campaigns, Habitify named content and affiliate marketing as the only two that genuinely worked for them.

Sources

• Friday Feature: 22 Lessons from Successful Newsletter Creators (Part 2)Yong-Soo Chung · sparkloop.app · Lesson #18 - Use these 5 Growth Levers for 5 Stages of Growth · undated
• Habitify: From $0 in 6 months to 1M downloads and $21K/monthAlan Nguyen · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated
• Product-led marketing - by Kyle Poyar - Lenny's NewsletterKyle Poyar · lennysnewsletter.com · Examples of product-led marketing · 2023-03-28