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Like Couchsurfing, but for work. How to grow this thing?

Looking for some new ideas for growth.
We're doubling the amount of users every month, but I think there is potential for more.

ShareHomeOffice is a free webapp which allows you to browse other remote workers in your area and invite them for co-working in your home office or get invited into theirs. No money involved. Like Couchsurfing. What you get in return is networking, skill exchange and real personal interactions.

Since the beginning we've been doing lots of:

  1. Reddit (works great)
  2. Twitter (works great)
  3. Posting on startup directories
  4. Tons of manual reaching out to people by cold mails/DM's and so on.

Any ideas on how to grow this thing further?

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    there's a startup that's doing something similar where I live (France)
    How I discovered the product was :

    • some freelancers I follow made a video about it
    • I was interested so I signed up
    • It was a great experience so I kept doing it (of course, the sessions stopped when we were on lockdown)

    The founder is also very active on LinkedIn, and has a Slack community.

    I would do the same thing for your product :

    • reach out to freelancers in your area and invite them for a free session
    • if they like it, they'll talk about it
    • post those testimonials on all your social networks
    • connect with a bunch of freelancers/digital nomads on LinkedIn, Instagram to get them to see them etc.

    That should do the trick to help you get your first users. Of course, COVID makes people less eager to meet people that they don't know right now, so this might make your growth slower.

    1. 1

      awesome, huge thanks!
      actually I think it's the best time now to show our existence because people realize that they need real social interactions. You're right though, there's a lot of people who are looking forward to start using it in 2021 when the situation calms down.
      Could you please share a link to the French project?

  2. 2

    does it have to be 2 way? digital nomads might be a target group if not
    try to lean something about your current users... what's in common to them? where do they hangout? like is it commonly sales people who travel? entrepreneurs? nomads? photographs? or other artists? ..

    1. 1

      it doesen't have to be 2 way.
      yeah, most of the current users are travelling freelancers (aka digital nomads). What are the other ways of reaching them, except Twitter&Reddit?

  3. 2

    Perhaps try localised forums and directories, or even reaching out to local governments bodies? Advertise on Nextdoor? I reckon most neighbourhoods will have some sort of local newsletter that's always looking for interesting and relevant content.

    1. 1

      Haven't thought about Nextdoor. Interesting, thanks!

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    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      Thanks! I'm building it with a long-term approach.

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      This comment was deleted a year ago.

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