I've done a 2-year MBA from the top business school in India. But I've learnt 10x about marketing while growing my startup to $3 million+ revenue in 4 years.

I regularly share my learnings & experiences in marketing my startup.

Here's a list of my top 13 marketing threads 🧵

Topics covered over 13 threads:
• Launching your Startup
• Building an Audience
• Marketing Lessons
• Online Channels
• $0 Marketing
• Newsletters
• SEO

Bookmark. Grab a coffee. Get reading!

Meanwhile, if you'd like to check my startup:
flexiple.com

1/ 21 marketing lessons after 4 years of building my own startup

https://twitter.com/hrishiptweets/status/1371327653127491585?s=20

I run 4 newsletters with 6000+ subscribers.

It has helped in marketing my startup, and growing to $3mn+ revenue.

But when I started in 2018, I had 0 online presence.

I went from 0 to 1259 subscribers. In a week. Without writing a word of content.

Full story of how I did it 🧵

1/ Deciding what to write

I had been writing software for 6 years & building products for my own startup for 3 years. I thought people might be interested to read my take on how to build tech products.

As a first, I wrote down topics for 10-12 issues of this newsletter.

2/ Getting public validation

I had no validation if people would want to read my newsletter. I didn't want to end up writing 5-10k words & not having anyone to read it.

So I put up a public post announcing that I am starting a newsletter & a glimpse of what to expect.

My startup has grown from 0 to $3 million+ revenue without spending $$ on paid ads.

I have done $0 or low budget marketing, using online channels effectively to market my products.

Here's a list of 10 such channels. A mega thread on my learnings over 4 years 🧵

10 channels over next 23 tweets:
1. Newsletter
2. SEO Blog
3. Guest Blog
4. Twitter
5. LinkedIn
6. Product Hunt
7. Hacker News
8. Reddit
9. Communities
10. Social Groups

Bookmark, grab a coffee & get reading!

Meanwhile, if you'd like to check my startup
flexiple.com

1/ Newsletter

Email newsletters are evergreen. You interact with your audience on a channel they can never do away with.

‣ Define a clear goal for your newsletter - what value will your subscribers get?

‣ Be yourself & write like a person would.

(1/3)

Email newsletters are evergreen.

I write & manage 4 newsletters with 6000+ subscribers. They have been a critical element of my startup's marketing & revenue growth.

Here's everything you need to know about running a newsletter and how to build an effective strategy 🧵

This framework is divided into X sections:
1) Why newsletters (1-2)
2) Define goals & theme (3-4)
3) Writing & tracking (5-6)
4) Distribution (7-12)

Meanwhile, if you'd like to check out my startup 👇

flexiple.com

1/ Why email newsletters still work

- Loyal audience

- Great for low budget marketing

- Everyone uses email

My startups get 750K/month organic traffic and SEO has been a major reason for our growth to $3 million+ revenue.

I honestly can't imagine a startup marketing plan that doesn't have SEO focus.

So here's my 30-step SEO strategy for startups based on 4 years of learnings 🧵

This framework has 6 sections:
1) The Right Mindset (1-5)
2) Correct Setup (6-10)
3) Website Authority (11-14)
4) Keyword Research (15-22)
5) Content Creation (23-26)
6) Optimisations (27-30)

Let's dive in!

Meanwhile, if you'd like to check my startup 👇
flexiple.com

1/ Focus on SEO from day 1

SEO takes time to show results, at least 3-6 months or even more. So you must plan & start working on SEO early.

[Right mindset]

Our Startup, Flexiple, is now a $2 million+ business and in our early years, Google sheets was our MVP.

We generated $100,000 revenue and got great validation just using sheets!

Here are 8 things to keep in mind while you build your startup's MVP 🧵

MVPs don't need to be products.

A landing page, email newsletter, demo video — all qualify as startup MVPs.

(1/8)

MVPs should have only one goal — Get early validation & feedback quickly.

(2/8)

Consistency is so underrated.

Most startup or marketing initiatives fail due to lack of consistent behaviour or routines, despite the best of intentions.

A short personal story 👇

In 2018, we realised that we needed to put serious effort on content creation & publish tech blogs.

My natural instinct was to say, 'Let me start by writing tech blogs myself. I know tech & I can write, so this shouldn't be so tough'.

To be considered a tech publication, we would need at least 40-60 blogs published.

That would mean:
10 blogs each month, for at least 4-6 months.

Marketing your startup doesn't have to be expensive!

My startup makes $2 million in revenue without spending $$$ on paid ads.

If you're on a $0 marketing budget, here are 8 things you can do with links to my threads on how exactly to do it 👇

1/ Focus on writing

If you want to be good at marketing, you have to be great at writing.

Writing consistently is hard. You need to build powerful habits & routines for both reading & writing.

https://twitter.com/hrishiptweets/status/1374225486436397057

2/ Start a newsletter

A newsletter helps you build loyal audience over time.

Email newsletters are evergreen. You interact with your audience on a channel they can never do away with.

https://twitter.com/hrishiptweets/status/1376767942449238018

29 SEO marketing lessons after growing my startups from 0 to $2 million in revenue & 400K/month organic traffic. 🧵

1/ Organic traffic is the best kind of traffic you can get.

SEO gives you consistent & reliable traffic.

2/ Focus on SEO from day 1.

Don't wait till your product is built to start working on SEO.

10 lessons I have learned working 10 years in tech as a startup founder, engineer & product manager. 🧵

1/ Unless it breaks your business, don't build.

Building new things is always exciting. However, unless there's a business outcome attached, it's a wasted effort.

2/ Build audience before product.

"If you build it, they will come" — is the biggest startup fallacy.

You don't need to quit your job for building your audience. You can easily do this on the side.

Unpopular opinion: Your startup tech doesn't need to be fancy.

In our early years, we used a Google sheet to run our freelance marketplace & generated $100,000 revenue.

Even now, at $2 million revenue, our marketing website runs on a no-code builder that costs us $10/mo.

(1/4)

Build tech to solve a business problem.

If I am building an Uber for X, I won't start by building an app right away.

Instead, I will just use 2 simple forms (@typeform) & @airtable to run my business.

I'll focus on generating revenue instead of building complex tech.

(2/4)

Don't reinvent the wheel.

When you build an app, use robust, out-of-the-box solutions.

Building things from scratch is expensive & stressful.

Uber can do it because they have 100s of engineers. You need to delegate as much as possible to existing solutions.

(3/4)

Marketing your startup & getting early traction is not easy.

Over last 4 years, I've launched my startups & 10+ products on multiple platforms while growing to $2mn revenues.

Here's my curated list of 25 startup launch platforms, compared across 5 parameters. 🧵

1/ Product Hunt (@ProductHunt)

Listing: Free
Link: Do-follow
Domain Rating: 90
Monthly Traffic: 4-5M
Time taken to get listed: Immediate/Flexible

Website: producthunt.com

2/ Remote Tools (@RemoteTools)

Listing: Free
Link: Do-follow
Domain Rating: 53
Monthly Traffic: 200-250K

Time taken to get listed: < 5 days

Website: remote.tools

Build audience before product.

But how do you do it?

Here's how I've built an audience across channels and grown my startups from 0 to $2 million revenues.

Involves a mix of marketing & writing. 🧵

(1/11)

When building audience on any channel, make personal connections.

Share your personal experiences, stories & learnings vs. company or product updates.

People connect with people, not with lifeless entities or brands.

(2/11)

Channels:
• Blog
• Newsletter
• Social media
• Slack channels
• Community websites
• LinkedIn & Facebook groups

(3/11)

I have bootstrapped my startup from 0 to $2 million+ revenue.

Bootstrapping is an art. It requires you to be smart, patient & resilient.

Here are 8 lessons/principles I have learnt over last 4 years that show how bootstrapped founders must build their startup 🧵

1/ Cash is king

Focus on cashflow from day 1, not just profits. It means you can't have indefinitely delayed client payments or sales that take months or even a year to close.

2/ Make your first $ without worrying about the process

For bootstrapped founders, the only validation is paying customers. Do everything you can to close the first sale.

10 lessons I have learned working 5 years in marketing as a tech startup founder. 🧵

Start building an audience before you even think of building a product.

You don't need to quit your job for this. You can build audience on the side.
- Publish blogs.
- Start a newsletter.
- Write on social media.

(1/10)

Successful launch requires months of preparation.

Launch days are also very stressful. Prepare a thorough plan & timeline beforehand so that you don't have to think about what to do & when on actual day of launch.

(2/10)

I have bootstrapped my startup to $2 million+ revenue in 4 years.

Being an engineer, my natural instinct initially was to build a product the moment I had an idea.

But I was SO WRONG.

As a startup founder, your focus should be to build a business and not fancy tech.

(1/5)

Build tech to solve a business problem

• Identify the core business problem

• Aim to solve this problem & use tech as a facilitator

(2/5)

Build tech smartly and efficiently

• Don't always build from scratch

• Use existing tools & products

• Use no-code tools wherever possible

(3/5)

I have been writing software & building products for 10+ years.

For last 4 years, I have done it for my startups growing to $1 million+ revenue.

As a small team or startup, it is tough to consistently meet product goals & keep shipping.

Here's a 8-step framework I follow 🧵

1/ Assign a product owner

You need to have one person responsible who drives the product forward and ensures that timelines are decided & met.

The product owner doesn't have to be the person who codes or designs the product.

(contd.)

He/she is primarily responsible to ensure there's progress made constantly.

For our products, it is usually one of us 3 founders - @karthiks2206, @suvansh_rt or myself.

My 2 startups, Flexiple & Remote Tools, get 70K/month & 30K/month organic traffic.

SEO is crucial to get you reliable & consistent traffic.

Here's my secret framework to help you achieve that (works for new websites too) 🧵

The best way to get high SEO traffic is by writing keyword focussed blogs targeting low-competition keywords.

So the following framework helps you find that goldmine of lucrative keywords.

1/ Come up with seed keywords

These are keywords, topics or even broad themes you already know or have read about.

Just jog your memory and list down all keywords you can remember.

(contd.)

It took me 4 yrs to grasp how to use online channels to market my product(s) & grow my startup to $1 mn+ revenue.

Here are my learnings from using 11 channels for marketing & growth.

Includes:
• When to use
• How to use
• Use it for
• Pro-tips

A mega thread 🧵

1/ Product Hunt

When to use:
• Launch: Early-stage product.
• Post-launch: SEO (listing + alternatives pages), launch side projects.

How to use:
Submit your product directly.

Use it for:
• Spike in traffic or # of users
• Feedback & validation
• Do-follow links

(contd.)

Pro-tips:

• Launch multiple times, when you have major updates. Ideal frequency is once per year.

• Launch a part of your product as an independent offering. Ex. Newsletter or an extensive content hub.

(contd.)

I have launched 10+ products on Product Hunt. Most made it to top 5 & all in top 10.

Product Hunt is great for sales, early users & even SEO. But it's highly competitive.

Successful products prepare for launch months before launch day.

11 things you must do BEFORE launch 🧵

1) Present your solution as a product.

Your product can be anything -- newsletter, book, report, webpage showcasing detailed analysis. Don't just think of products in the traditional sense.

Eg. Maker Mind by @anthilemoon, one of the most loved products of 2019, is a newsletter.

2) Be active on Product Hunt before launch.

• Make efforts to participate in the community & support others. People will return the favour when you launch.

• Plus, you get to know the nuances. Maybe PH algorithm rewards you for it too :)

Pro-Tip: Use their makers community.

10 new "unicorns" in India in 2021, 6 in last 6 days.

I've never been able to grasp why huge loss-making businesses are celebrated & made heroes.

So for those who want to build a profitable business, here are 8 lessons from bootstrapping my startup to $1mn revenue in 4 years 🧵

1/ Don't quit your full-time job yet.

Not sure when & whether to start up?

Do this:
• Start a blog or newsletter
• Build a following on social media or a niche community
• Create an MVP on the side

The 'all or nothing' strategy is needlessly high risk.

2/ Earning the first $ is the toughest, it only gets better

My journey of bootstrapping Flexiple (Revenue):
Year 1 - $0
Year 2 - $50,000
Year 3 - $400,000
Year 4 - $1 million