How I Grew Deformity to 1,000 Users

When I started bootstrapping Deformity.ai as a solo founder, I thought that more users would come organically through product-led growth.

Deformity is a free form builder that replaces Typeform, and since I knew that Typeform grew with a viral loop, I figured I'd kickstart that growth in my own product.

Though product-led growth has helped, it took much more manual work to reach the milestone than initially planned.

Here are the exact steps that I took to grow Deformity to its first 1,000 users:

1. I grew a pre-launch waitlist.

Because Deformity is a form product, I did something a little unconventional and used a competitor's product to grow my own list.

Even though it was obvious I was using a competitor's forms, some mistook it for Deformity and gave feedback that helped give insight into things that I could build into Deformity to make it better from the get-go.

To grow this list, I made Reddit posts, posted on Ben's Bites back when it was a thing for AI products, and commented on social media posts that I thought would attract early adopters.

Remember, these lists have lifespans. If the product isn't complete fast enough after they signed up, you'll likely have lost the usefulness of the list. No one will remember it, and few will sign up for your actual product. This is more or less what happened with Deformity. The list had around 100 emails, but I took months to build the initial MVP, and when I launched it was mostly to crickets and I had to rebuild momentum.

2. I created a separate empty Reddit channel for Deformity and filled it with posts.

I did this for two reasons. One, to boost SEO around Deformity for certain keywords. Two, it helped to control the early narrative around the product and what it can do.

I haven't seen a lot of growth come via this channel, although I don't think it hurts to have it out there.

3. I listed Deformity on Product Hunt and directories.

I didn't even try to compete on Product Hunt, and it shows because the launch was a complete disaster with almost no traction whatsoever. I knew this was going to be the case, yet I did it anyway because I mainly wanted the links for SEO.

That's also why I made sure my product was listed in some of the top AI directories to build up Deformity's website ranking.

4. I commented on Reddit posts looking for forms or solving problems related to forms.

Forms are a highly competitive market, but it's a large market. I knew that if Deformity was mentioned in a lot of the posts that it'd meet the needs of many users and that I'd gain some initial traction that way.

This works, and I continue to do this often.

5. I DM'd anyone on Reddit who was using a competitor's form and told them they could save a lot of money by using Deformity.

While this was highly effective and I gained many new users this way, I ended up with a permanent or shadow ban on many Reddit accounts. I wouldn't recommend this without a longer term strategy because you will eventually be banned, which isn't great.

6. I iterated quickly on user requests.

When I received user requests for features or bugs, I moved fast to implement them. Normally, that meant shipping what they asked for that day or within a few days and responding in a few hours at most.

7. I pivoted.

Not many people talk about this, but I changed the website messaging often until it felt like I was reaching the audience that was most interested in my product. When I first launched, the product message was "AI smart forms". That didn't resonate as well as what I landed on, which is "free forms in seconds".

I also launched a unique product that no one else has since I offer AI forms AND traditional static forms (like Typeform), so I continue to change the messaging to best sell Deformity and help people understand how it's different.

8. I created a product with product-led growth built in.

When I chose a specific niche to build a business in, I wanted it to have some mechanism that allowed the product to grow without me doing all the sales since I was creating it on my own. Forms are one of those products that naturally have a "Runs on" mark for free users (how Typeform grew), so I thought it lined up well with what I wanted.

9. I largely ignored competitors.

It was maybe a month before I launched Deformity that Youform launched to a lot of fanfare and with almost the same business model (except without AI). They weren't the first to do it and certainly haven't been the last. While this could've been disheartening, I chose to ignore it and keep plugging along.

One thing I could've done better here is create some sort of marketing that tied into theirs so I could have a bite of their X audience.

10. I sent out cold emails.

This was highly successful. It requires massaging your messaging until you get it just right, but when you do, it can work quite well. This won't scale long-term with the pricing of many low-end SaaS tools, but when you're just starting, you need to do things that won't scale and sending out cold emails is one of those that I found to be effective.