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How did you get your first 1000 Users?

by Moyo

First 0-100
100-500
500-1000

Would love to hear your stories :)

Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
posted to Icon for group Growth
Growth
 on July 3, 2021
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  1. 1

    Hit 2000 installs on Android within a few weeks. Biggest lesson: don't post about your app, post about what your app finds. People share data they find shocking, not app recommendations.

    User Avatar Mahere_Fluxera
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    a month ago
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  2. 4

    From analysing hundred of projects it seems to be...

    1. Engaging in specfic Communities like Indie Hackers

    2. Enage in social communities: Reddit, FB Groups, Slack, Discord

    3. Twitter growth

    4. Marketplaces like AppSumo that can get your product in front of a lot of people

    User Avatar RicUIH
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    5 years ago
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    1. 1

      Thanks :)Reddit can be though
      so far i've leveraged twitter only

      Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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      5 years ago
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      1. 1

        Okay Dokay

        User Avatar RicUIH
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        5 years ago
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  3. 3

    It wasn’t easy but my app ClusterStack finally reached 1.1k users. It’s was an effort to discover how to advertise it but a takeaway from what I’ve discovered:

    • Facebook groups is a good place to advertise it. Find groups that where your niche is concentrated and you’ll have more people down to use it.
    • Reddit is good too, I’ve posted about my app on r/reactnative and got a lot of support and downloads. But , again, if it’s not your niche , those users won’t go back.
    • Twitter and Instagram are good too if you use proper hashtags.
    • Facebook ads didn’t worked properly for me. I believe I need to spend more time studying it to make it work
    • Google cpc works really nice , but more expensive , I’ll use it more once I’ve more budget for that.
    User Avatar tekT4lk
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    5 years ago
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    1. 2

      Not tried buying ads yet.

      Thanks for sharing :)

      Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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      5 years ago
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  4. 3

    i'm sure more great answers will keep coming in from others, but meanwhile, you can check out this roundtable post i did with successful founders on how they found their first users.

    User Avatar channingallen
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    5 years ago
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    1. 2

      Thanks for sharing, How did IH get its first 1000 Users?

      Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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      5 years ago
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      1. 2

        we published founder interviews and distributed them to hacker news. back in those early days it seems like 1 in 5 interview articles would make it to HN's front page. we'd then capture much of that website traffic in our newsletter. by month two, we'd hit 1,000 subs.

        the next month, courtland built this forum. it would be many months of grinding before we'd hit 1,000 registered user accounts on the site. by "grinding" i mean things like:

        • we both created a few fake user accounts to create the illusion of a busy early forum
        • we continued to write and publish interviews and newsletters
        • courtland launched a podcast
        • etc.
        User Avatar channingallen
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        5 years ago
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        1. 2

          This is so insightful, So you built an email list first before the main forum.
          Nowadays it seems like only programming news make it to the front page of HN.

          So IH didn't experience any "viral growth" i mean a spike in users or was it a slow 5 users, 20 users, 3 users, 1 user, 60 users, 0 users , 100 users per day?

          Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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          5 years ago
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  5. 2

    I happened to create a post to the r/webdev subreddit and within a day over 1000 people signed up. Proof

    User Avatar jacobbeckerman
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    5 years ago
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    1. 1

      Makes you a marketing legend, What was the post like

      Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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      5 years ago
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      1. 2

        https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/nt6gus/i_created_a_browserbased_video_editor_100_free/

        User Avatar jacobbeckerman
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        5 years ago
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        1. 1

          Thanks :)

          Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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          5 years ago
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  6. 2

    We released the free version of our first product Shade, (a collection of free & premium HTML landing page templates) on ProductHunt, and we were immediately on the top 3 on that day and ended up with #2 PRODUCT OF THE DAY. This actually gave us first 300+ users within first 10-12 days.

    After that we got some quick backlinks from other websites and twitter and those links brought us 1000+ users within 40-45 days.

    User Avatar farhanrizvi
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    5 years ago
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    1. 1

      When launching on PH did you have a previous following or got a Hunter?

      Was the retention of the pH users good?

      Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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      5 years ago
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      1. 2

        I had some subscribers on my list who initially helped to push this on the top. I also shared this on some Facebook groups after submitting on PH. That also helped.

        User Avatar farhanrizvi
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        5 years ago
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        1. 1

          Oh, Never found success with PH will try again at some point

          Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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          5 years ago
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  7. 2

    AppSumo Marketplace

    the Better Sheets story on StarterStory

    User Avatar kamphey
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    5 years ago
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    1. 1

      Huge Noah kogan fan on YT

      Its a saas?

      Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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      5 years ago
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      1. 2

        Better Sheets? no. it's a course, a community, products...
        BetterSheets.co👀

        User Avatar kamphey
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        5 years ago
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        1. 1

          Seen it.

          Thought appsumo was for only paid saas

          Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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          5 years ago
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          1. 2

            appsumo, yes
            appsumo marketplace, no.

            User Avatar kamphey
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            5 years ago
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            1. 1

              Oh ok

              So appsumo got you your first 1000 Users?

              Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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              5 years ago
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              1. 2

                yes.

                first 7 users: Posting on Indiehackers, &own socials
                From 7 to 2,250: AppSumo Marketplace

                User Avatar kamphey
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                5 years ago
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                1. 1

                  Thanks for sharing :)
                  Really appreciate :)

                  Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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                  5 years ago
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  8. 1

    People wanted to export to mobile in a competing product, but it didn't support it. So I made a blog post on how to export to mobile in this competing product. Which it couldn't of course, and then guided them to mine :).

    Google picked this up and so all people searching for that ended up on my blog.

    I knew users wanted this because of the many questions on forums and reddit.

    User Avatar deWiTTERS
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    5 years ago
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    1. 1

      So content marketing worked for you

      Avatar for user @Moyo Moyo
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      5 years ago
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