Startup Business Growth Strategies: +100 Customers in 5 Months

This post breaks down the real-world strategies that fuelled that growth, from cold email outreach and early pricing decisions to customer discovery and rapid product iteration. Whether you're launching a startup business or scaling your first product or service, these growth marketing strategies offer practical, step-by-step insights to help you build a strong customer base, improve your conversion rate, and achieve long-term business growth.

If you're building a startup business, we hope this story gives you a practical blueprint for early-stage business growth. After a few years in the market, we looked back to our first achievement: 100 paying customers in just few months. It might not sound massive, but for us, it confirmed one critical thing — we're building a product or service that people genuinely value and enjoy using. What’s even more encouraging? We hit this milestone without a traditional marketing budget. Call it a growth hack or simply growth marketing strategies layered through hard work — either way, it was a mix of deliberate tactics working together, step by step.

The great thing about what we’re about to show you is that we achieved this milestone without spending a cent on marketing; you could say that we growth hacked our way here, but honestly it was just months of hard work with lots of various elements all working together in various ways.

Many of the strategies we used are scalable and sustainable — things like flexible pricing tiers, yearly plans, and agency-friendly models. These not only accelerated our revenue but also created a path for long term growth with a stronger customer base. So how did we do it? Let’s walk through the process, tactics, and lessons we learned along the way.

Let’s be upfront — growing a startup business from zero customers is incredibly hard. There’s no silver bullet, no one feature or campaign that unlocks instant business growth. It takes a combination of experimentation, consistency, and relentless focus on both short term actions and long term vision.

Everything we tried — from cold emails to product tweaks — impacted our ability to acquire users. Some things helped. Others didn’t. But the more we experimented, the more we learned. That mindset is key to any growth marketing strategy: try more things, measure what works, and double down on what delivers value. The startup mantra of “Do Things That Don’t Scale” couldn’t be more accurate. Without an existing customer base or network effect, you’ll need to put in the manual effort — whether that’s cold outreach, networking, or content creation. Even companies with massive audiences (like Google) struggle to launch new products or services — so don’t expect it to be easy.

The term Do Things That Don’t Scale couldn’t be closer to the truth. If you have a limited network effect then you will have to do more & more things that don’t scale, whether it’s cold calling, emailing or networking. Remember, there’s companies (like Google) that already have the network effect but sometimes still can’t make a product work – like I said before there’s lots of factors at play here.

Frequent rejection (get used to hearing “no”) Uncertainty around prioritization You’ll never please every user — but listen and learn The competitive landscape gives customers more choices than ever Everything takes longer than you expect You’re juggling more than just the product: accounting, fundraising, support, and taxes all compete for attention

We didn’t raise capital — we saved for 4 years to self-fund We both worked full time while building Gleam We’re both over 30 with families, living in one of the most expensive cities in the world (Melbourne) Balancing family and a startup often meant late nights and early mornings Most of our target audience is overseas, so we had to work across time zones Like any founding team, we had to navigate our differences — business logic vs. dev logic can sometimes be tougher than marriage 🙂

Our goals were aligned: no investor distractions, just product and user focus. We stayed lean and data driven, which helped us make better decisions faster. We were able to grow organically, on our own terms, without pressure. Building a successful business requires resilience — but also strategic focus. And most importantly, it takes a commitment to creating something people truly want.

Before we even started building Gleam I emailed over 30 businesses that ran contests asking about their problems. Why did they use the platform they used? What problems or limitations did they have? What could someone do to make their life easier?

Along with our own personal drivers, we used this data to draw up an initial feature list.

• Beautifully designed widget
• 1 click actions
• Automated verification
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & SoundCloud

That was it. We knew people had a legitimate need for this. So we started building. Since then we’ve found that there’s lots of companies that didn’t know they had a legitimate need for something like Gleam.

When you're building a startup business, it’s easy to fall into feature paralysis — believing that you need to ship dozens of features before your product or service is worth selling. In reality, the most effective growth strategies often start with doing one thing extremely well. Focus on solving a real problem beautifully. That’s where true business growth begins.

You don’t need to build everything — but you do need to build something better. Look at the competitive advantages you can create. Where do your competitors fall short? What do users complain about? Start there, and build something lean, focused, and user-first. For us, that meant building a platform with more flexibility, more integrations, and a better user experience — one that worked seamlessly for businesses running campaigns, but was also easy for customers to interact with.

You don’t have to build a perfect product, but your business needs to do something better.

That focus gave us an instant edge during beta outreach. We could tailor conversations based on which tool a business was currently using, and position Gleam as a simpler, more effective alternative. It wasn't about feature lists — it was about creating a better solution. No amount of marketing efforts can make up for a poor product. Real customer growth starts with building something people want — and making it better than what they already have.

Once you have something worth beta testing the next step is to get users on board. This is a critical stage that enables to you:

• Validate your concept
• Build a core base of fanatical users
• Build features that people want
• Iron out bugs fast

When we had a proof of concept we emailed ~50 bloggers, offering them a free lifetime plan to help us test. This stage was critical in getting our product mature enough to start charging real money. Here’s an example of the email I used:

If you’re building software as a startup business, expect bugs. Lots of them. From obscure browser compatibility issues to edge cases with plugins, bugs are part of the process — not a failure. What matters most is how fast you respond, learn, and improve.

In fact, during our early product development, user-reported bugs became one of our biggest sources of insight. Many of the improvements we made were sparked by real feedback from real users — and led to a better user experience and stronger product or service overall. Here are just a few examples of how user issues helped shape Gleam:

Widget too wide for blog themes: We introduced automatic resizing down to 320px. Too many entry emails: We batched emails into 10-minute intervals and added an option to disable them entirely. Fans had to unlike/re-like Facebook pages to enter: We added quick login to auto-verify existing fans. Poor widget layout with too many entry methods: We redesigned the layout entirely to improve usability. Instagram API limits: We built fallback systems to prevent service interruptions. Third-party cookie issues: We improved messaging and documentation to avoid user friction. No way to duplicate campaigns: We introduced cloning functionality for contest templates. Facebook tabs didn’t work on mobile: We built smart links that redirected mobile users properly.

Each fix didn’t just solve a problem — it made the platform better, faster, and more scalable.

The more we fixed, the more confidence we gained from our growing customer base. Over time, this iterative mindset helped us move closer to long term product maturity. We weren’t just patching issues — we were evolving. And as our business grows, we continue to prioritize user-reported feedback, knowing it’s one of the most valuable inputs we have. The takeaway? Don’t shy away from bugs. Embrace them as fuel for improving your product and building competitive advantages that your users will actually feel.

Relevant outreach was — and still is — one of our most effective growth marketing strategies. In the first two months, I committed to sending at least 10 cold emails every day. It was consistent, measurable, and one of the most direct ways to drive early customer acquisition.

What started as a hustle tactic quickly became one of our most data-driven approaches to growing our startup business. And the numbers spoke for themselves: Emailing founders: 90% response rate
Emailing the marketing team: 50% response rate
Contact forms: 10% response rate The key lesson? Find the right person. No matter how strong your pitch, sending it to a generic inbox won’t get the same results. If I couldn’t find an email, I’d often reach out through social media platforms like Twitter to start a conversation.

We took advantage of search-friendly hashtags to find relevant brands and campaigns — think: #giveaway, #contest, or #win. This helped us identify accounts already running promotions or actively engaging with users — a perfect fit for Gleam. Tracking those mentions gave us better insight into how companies run promotions and helped us tailor our outreach to their specific needs — improving both connection rates and value offered. This process became a repeatable part of our early marketing strategy.

We’re lucky that there’s quite a few specific hashtags or words that allow us to track down who is running social sweepstakes, contests or offers.

The main problem here is one that I talk about above, it’s hard to reach the right person.

I'd normally do a search on Twitter for #win or #content or #giveaway then try to track down the original Tweet from the brand:

Finding the right contact early on is a skill every founder should learn. You don’t need to spam — you need to find and message the right person with a solution that matters to them.

Here’s the process I used:

Use a tool like Hunter.io to verify or guess their email address

If you're launching a startup business, don’t wait until your public release to get your first users. The earlier you can secure paying customers — or at least people committed to buying — the easier your business growth journey becomes. Before launching Gleam, we had around 10 customers lined up to upgrade once we were ready. In reality, about 7 followed through, but that small initial customer base gave us a huge boost.

Your first 10 customers are always the hardest to acquire — but once you figure out how to get them, the next 10, and the next 100, become much easier.

Having early buyers validates your product or service, confirms your pricing model, and gives you potential case studies or early testimonials to use in future campaigns. It also informs your marketing growth strategies by showing which types of users are most likely to convert.

In the beginning, your priority should be simple: get feedback, build relationships, and make the product better. That might mean offering your product or service for free — and that’s okay. We reached out to entrepreneurs and small business owners on Reddit, especially in communities like r/startups and r/entrepreneur. We offered to help them grow their business in exchange for feedback. These interactions often turned into:

• New users
• Product feedback
• Case studies and exposure
• Positive mentions and content marketing opportunities

These exchanges led us to case studies, exposure on Reddit’s Startup & Entrepreneur subreddits.

Plus a few comments from customers who had also had positive experiences using the platform:

In the early stages, almost any engagement is a win. These conversations not only helped us refine our product but also gave us social proof that helped drive more customer acquisition later on.

If you're bootstrapping your startup, revenue is everything. The sooner you can validate your pricing strategy and start collecting payments, the faster you can reinvest into growth.

Charging early does three powerful things:

1. Sets value expectations: Users treat your product more seriously when there’s a price attached.
2. Funds your growth: Even modest revenue can fund marketing, onboarding, or dev resources.
3. Improves pricing insight: You get real data on what your target audience is willing to pay — not just what they say.

Sure, some investors may push you to focus on user growth before revenue. But for most early-stage startups, especially those without external funding, starting to charge is the fastest way to move forward. At Gleam, we knew from early interactions that users saw value — and we leaned into that. That decision directly supported both our short-term survival and our path to long term growth.

Pricing your product or service as a startup business is one of the toughest decisions you'll make. We struggled with it early on — not because we didn’t believe in the value Gleam offered, but because we had to serve very different customer segments. Some customers — like agencies running campaigns for clients — weren't getting direct value themselves, while others were driving massive results. We’ve seen brands generate up to 50,000 actions from a single Gleam campaign. If you value each action at $1.40 (a common agency benchmark), the ROI is undeniable. But here’s the thing: we didn’t have the time or resources to chase big custom deals. We needed a pricing strategy that worked for a wide customer base, especially for small businesses who wanted instant access and low friction.

So we launched with a simple, value-based pricing structure. Instead of limiting by usage, we structured plans based on the value we knew each type of customer could unlock from the platform. Our early marketing strategy focused on matching customers to the right plan as quickly as possible — and making sure they felt like they were getting more than they paid for.

We’re still learning. Pricing is an ongoing experiment.

Test calling your highest plan the Business plan. We’ve found it’s more likely to get an automatic upgrade from real businesses

We do hear objections — especially from entry-level users who feel our lowest plan is expensive. But businesses on the higher tiers rarely push back. In fact, we’re now considering releasing an Enterprise option for larger customers looking for even more advanced features.

One small tactic that worked? Labeling our top tier “Business Plan.” It signals value — and has led to more natural upgrades from companies who see themselves as professional users.

The key to sustainable business growth isn’t just about price. It’s about building trust, demonstrating value, and understanding how different users define success. Keep testing, stay flexible, and let real behavior guide your long term growth decisions. Compare us to any other social tool on the market, most lock you in for 12 months at time, they offer no flexibility to upgrade or downgrade whenever you want. We want to make it easy to do business with us.

I feel strongly that customer optimization is one of the biggest drivers of growth we have. Over 50% of users that contact us personally for support end up purchasing a paid plan. So it’s vitally important that we respond quickly, well & make them feel like we’re on top of our game.

Things I feel have helped us with customers:

• Do things FAST. Customers are always so surprised when we fix something in minutes, we love impressing them
• Personally email them (I send an intro email automatically after 24 hours which gets a 50% response rate)
• Allow them to contact you easily
• Invest in a group chatroom, we’ve been using HipChat with great results
• Always treat your customers how you would like to be treated
• Provide value, show them what to do, give them advice, show them what’s working
• Be flexible, people will want to cancel. Be fair with them, as they might come back or tell friends

If you get your customer service right, you’ll start to see your growth from word of mouth increase. I always try to ask people where they heard about us, often I’ll hear “a friend told me” or “someone mentioned you guys in a conversation”

Every interaction with a customer is the opportunity to impress them. Do it.

If you have a business you need to make time for inbound & content marketing. To me, content marketing is writing great content on your site that aligns with the types of terms that your customers might use to find you.

For us, we need to find people that want to grow their business, run social contests or engage their Facebook fans more. Over time we learned more about the types of people that were using our platform, so we started focusing more on growth hacking tips & case studies.

Over 30% of our signups come from some sort of inbound marketing activity. For example, this blog post on ways to grow your Instagram followers.

Here’s some things you can do:

• Write blog posts religiously
• Create posts that show users how to use your product
• Think about your content pillars
• Have an incredible docs area & leverage it for driving traffic
• Put presentations up on Slideshare
• Create walkthrough videos of your product & optimise for YouTube
• Build a WordPress plugin & optimise it for their directory
• Use a tool like SEM Rush to see what keywords your competitors optimise for
• Run contests to drive important actions
• Build & market to your email list

It’s much easier to make decisions when you have the data to support your theory. Track as much as you can:

• Site Analytics – Referral sources, conversions, segments etc
• Errors – Exceptions & Javascript errors have saved our asses so many times
• Signups / Upgrades / Downgrades – Why do they happen?
• Validation Errors – When or how are users getting fed up?
• Social mentions – Who is talking about you? Is it good or bad?
• Backlinks - Look at who's linking to you, can you build a relationship with them?

If you have to do something regularly, automate it. Here’s a list of stuff we’ve automated:

• Server deployment
• Alerts for people entering our chatrooms
• Monthly payment cycles
• Fraud detection
• Lifecycle emails
• Upgrades / Downgrades

It frees up your time & helps you be consistent.

One of the most valuable things we’ve done to date is write a case study, I have no idea why we’ve only done one. But it has easily sent us over 25% of our total customers.

Users love to see real world implementations of your product, it helps to overcome objectives & shortcomings they may have in their head.

I plan to have use-case specific case studies for all our different customer types at some point.

Strongly consider synergies that your product has with other products. We’ve successfully integrated with people like MailChimp, Campaign Monitor & Shopify. Not only has this driven sales, but it opens us instantly up to a new market of users.

Below is a graph of an integration with FullScreen that we launched last week. This integration doubled our user base in a matter of days & gave us exposure into the YouTube & game streaming markets (i.e. Twitch).

The best businesses are never afraid to try something different, growing your startup is no different. You’ll have plenty of conversations with co-founders, designers or developers on what everything thinks is the best way to do something.

Put this button here, make it that colours, it should have this number of steps & we should definitely be using a rotating carousel on the homepage.

If you want to make changes you should be testing what is & isn’t working. If something drops your metrics, then revert it, if something positively impacts your metrics then keep it. Do not let your ego get in the way be assuming an awesome idea will always work.

For example, we were a lot more bullish about the number of subscribers we would get with different opt-in forms (and exit intent forms) on this blog.

But now that we’ve tested a few variations we have a much better understanding of what works for our audience.

Another 30% of our new signups (that we can track) come either directly from branding within our widgets, or from hearing or seeing one of our contests on a competitors website. Finding this viral loop is extremely important to help you build scale without having to invest as much in marketing.

Now we have to tradeoff the benefits of this exposure vs the cost of having to host & support a free user base. This is something that works well in our favour right now 🙂