4 builders who never spoke to each other

Have something ready to catch one big placement

Four builders describe a single placement outrunning everything else they had done: a short newspaper piece generating thousands of sales, a platform owner's editorial feature turning millions of impressions into thousands of downloads a day and pulling journalists behind it, and a major tech write-up bringing three hundred signups within days. The window closes fast, and what happens next decides whether it mattered. One founder never converted his national coverage into a channel and says growth halted completely when the press died down; another's fast converting coverage could not save a product whose platform made retention impossible.

The method

1. 01

   One placement in a major newspaper can outrun everything you have done to date, which is why the unglamorous pitching is worth continuing.

2. 02

   For a mobile app the platform owner's editorial feature outweighs everything you can buy: it converts into daily download volume and pulls press coverage behind it.

3. 03

   Coverage in a major tech publication converts fast, but it cannot save a product whose platform will not let you retain anyone.

4. 04

   Press attention has a short window. If you do not convert coverage into a channel while it is running, growth stops dead when it fades.

What it returned

• 500,000

  Apple picked Habitify as a new app it liked. Millions of impressions became thousands of downloads a day, journalists wrote about it, Apple featured it a second time, and the app passed 500,000 downloads within two years on the way to a million and $21,000 a month.

• 300

  VentureBeat wrote up the founders' earlier Telegram bot ad exchange and 300 bot developers and advertisers signed up within days. Telegram exposed no user data so no targeting was possible, retention sat around 0.5 percent, and the product was abandoned.

• A short Wall Street Journal piece about the chairs generated thousands of sales for QOR360.

• Taleship got local and international coverage including a column in Puerto Rico's largest newspaper. The founder never capitalised on it and says growth halted completely once the press died down.

Sources

• 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
• Making $100k/Mo Designing and Building an Active ChairTurner Osler · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated
• Making $80K a month with a problem-solving Slack-first AppAlex Kistenev · failory.com · What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea? · undated
• Shut Down +600 Users Startup due to Hurricane MariaSergio Mattei Diaz · failory.com · Which were the causes of Taleship failure? · undated