Imagine going 0 to 2Bn in 18 months

Whats what this startup JUST did

Hey everyone!

Back again and today we’re talking about:

🔥 Hopin raised $125M at a $2 Bn Val just 18 months after launch
🔥 RemoteWorkly is LIVE on producthunt
🔥 What I learnt from 100 Nathan Latka podcasts, 200 Indie hacker shows, 50 Microconf talks


Leeeeets gooo!

Hopin raised $125M at a $2 Bn Val just 18 months after launch

I shared a video before about how timing is by far THE MOST important factor in business, and this is clearly the case. Johnny launched hopin 18 months ago and COVID hit, moving every virtual event online.

They’ve gone from 5k users to 3.5 Million users in 8 months i.e 435k users each month.

They growth is very time focused but also product-driven. This is why product lead growth is by far the best kind. This is covered in a Latka podcast, where Johnny stated that each audience member that an “event organiser” invites essentially becomes a potential customer

Building an aggressively viral growth engine.

I’m keen to see how they go once the Vaccine is out and things go back to “normal”

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RemoteWorkly is live on Producthunt

For those who’ve been following the journey, its been a fast but long winded one.

A small ask is for you to check out the product if you’re team is facing zoom fatigue and/or if you’re looking to try async video meetings -> we’re live 🔥

Our current growth levers for those interested:
- SEO (taking on this big time), using the Skyscraper technique, getting someone to do organic backlink outreach for all article
- Technical and on-site website SEO
- Launching remoteworkly.co/show soon, to use the viral effect of “powered by” to drive traffic to our site
- Twitter threads as well as forum involvement
- Quora articles around hot topics like remote work, and zoom fatigue
- We do a lot of manual outreach on LinkedIn and Twitter too, some automated using meetalfred
- Lastly building mini products that we can get some backlink juice from PR

Let me know your thoughts on this, always keen to brainstorm

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What I learnt from 100 Nathan Latka podcasts, 200 Indie hacker shows, 50 Microconf talks

SEO
Over 70% of founders credited SEO for being their best source of growth. Invest into ASAP and build up that MOAT

FB / Social Media
Its a hit or miss. Don't waste time curating the perfect Ad or post. Tim Doyle of Eucalyptus shared that his most profitable Ad was not some high quality video but rather a Doge meme

Velocity is everything
When building companies you NEED to move fast, there is no alternative to it

Product
Product led growth is the BEST type, its natural and doesn't feel forced

Distribution
This is probably just as much if not more important than the content or product itself. Build with distribution in mind, articles / SEO or products

SLC
NO ONE wants to use an MVP - stop using that mindset. Literally no one other than your Mum/Dad will use a "minimum" "viable" thing you build. Its 2020, the whole patchy product cycle doesn't exist. Aim for Simple, Loveable and Complete (or what I call Minimal Product for Impact) Introduce simple features that meet your north star and make sure they're complete

Cold Email
Learn to master this, its a great skillset to have in building a company and distributing content

Feature Validation
Before you build a feature, literally build a simple landing page, run some GAds to it for lifetime deals (this doesn't work always, but for some apps)

Communicate
Build every channel possible to communicate with your user as often as possible for as long as possible

No CC No Bueno
UNTIL someone gives you their CC, you don't have validation. Do not take anything else as validation other than their Credit Card

Timeframe
Before you start, set a goal to hit, if you don't hit that goal, be quick to reflect. Build more or move on Last but the MOST important

Audience
Almost 90% of all the "Super successful" founders attributed having a previous built audience as their reason for success. They built this audience through, podcasts, blogs, Youtube, Tiktok or even Newsletters. BUILD.AN.AUDIENCE

You have a higher chance of succeeding with a shit product and a large audience than vice versa For those that are keen

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That’s all for this week

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