Word Of Mouth Playbook

Volio is a social trading platform that enables groups of friends, family, and colleagues to invest together while splitting trading fees. Founded by Thomas Beatty, a recovering investment banker, the platform addresses barriers to entry by lowering costs, enabling diversification, and leveraging collective intelligence. After raising $5 million and launching soft in March of last year, Volio has attracted hundreds of real-money users and is now expanding into crypto and exploring white-label partnerships with credit unions and community banks.

Workato is an enterprise integration platform founded in 2012 by Vijay Tella and three co-founders. The company helps large enterprises connect hundreds of apps and automate cross-app workflows, with a GitHub-like approach featuring 22,000-25,000 public integration recipes. With over 21,000 organizations signed up, 1,000+ paying customers, and 300% year-over-year growth in 2017, Workato has raised $17 million and operates with strong unit economics (sub-12-month CAC payback, 50%+ net revenue expansion).

Profit Well is a free financial metrics platform for subscription companies that evolved from Price Intelligently, Patrick Campbell's pricing optimization agency. Founded in 2012 and bootstrapped entirely, the company grew from $126k in first-year bookings to $8M ARR by late 2017, with over 8,000 companies using the free product and a target customer paying around $2,000/month on the paid side. The company maintains exceptional unit economics (20:1 LTV to CAC) and low churn (<1% logo churn) by focusing on accuracy and utility-based pricing metrics.

Percolata is a SaaS platform that helps physical retailers optimize their sales team scheduling using proprietary deep learning technology and sensor data. Founded in 2011 by Greg Tanaka, the company struggled for five years to find product-market fit before pivoting from selling sensor data subscriptions to helping retailers schedule their existing staff more effectively. With 40 retail logos and 18.4 million scheduled hours under contract at $0.85 per hour, they're approaching $10M in annual revenue and experiencing rapid organic growth through word-of-mouth referrals.

LinkTrust is an affiliate and referral tracking SaaS platform launched in 2002 by Brett Grow and a partner. The company grew to $4.5M ARR within a few years but faced a major restructuring around 2011-2012 when unsustainable spending and cultural issues forced them to cut from 17 employees down to 5, requiring two years to pay off $2.4M in liabilities. They were acquired on January 1st of the current year by a local individual owner, having recovered to between $1-4M ARR with healthier unit economics and a 4% monthly churn rate.

Belay is a bootstrapped virtual solutions marketplace founded by Brian and Shannon Miles in 2010 that matches dedicated US-based virtual assistants and bookkeepers with busy professionals. Starting with ~$280k in first-year revenue and reaching profitability in 14 months, the company grew to $15M ARR by 2017 with 500+ contractors and 61 employees, differentiating itself through high-touch relationship management and selective contractor onboarding (accepting <2% of 1,200 monthly resumes).

Stacy Hamalis left a six-figure consulting career to launch The Lia Soap, a Greek-inspired natural skincare line made with organic ingredients and high-quality Greek olive oil. In her first 12 months, she generated $10,000 in sales while investing $50-60k in packaging and branding; by month 18, she had grown to $20,000 in sales across two SKUs (soap and body oil), achieving 4x year-over-year growth through local events and wholesale partnerships.

SomeAll is a free analytics platform that helps small businesses consolidate data from multiple sources (Shopify, Etsy, PayPal, ad accounts, social media) and provides automated recommendations and actions to improve revenue. Founded by serial entrepreneur Dane Atkinson in 2012, the platform has grown to serve approximately 500,000 small businesses with over 100% quarter-over-quarter growth in new user signups, entirely through word-of-mouth and partner visibility. With $25M raised and a team of under 50 based primarily in New York, SomeAll is deliberately staying free to maximize adoption before introducing a monetization model.

Outbound was an event-based customer communication platform founded by Josh Weisberg and Drew in 2013 to solve their own pain at GetAround. Rather than using email lists, it triggered messages based on customer actions inside products. The company stayed lean with just 5 people, grew to over 100 customers doing well north of $30k MRR, and was acquired by Zendesk in May 2017 for significant leverage on their $2.1M raise.

Ivy is a membership-based social university founded in 2012 that brings together 20,000 inspired individuals across 7 cities for learning, growth, and impact. Members pay $1,000 annually (with tiered pricing for under/over 35), and the company generates approximately $10M in ARR through membership dues, ticketed events, and brand partnerships. Growing at 100% year-over-year with strong retention (below 10% churn) and minimal paid acquisition (less than $10k/month), Ivy leverages word-of-mouth and personal interviews ($400 CAC) to build a highly engaged community.

Expensify is a mobile app for business travelers that lets users photograph receipts and automatically extracts information for reimbursement, with payouts the next day. Founded in 2008 by David Barrett, the company grew to 45,000 paying companies through a bottom-up consumer-first acquisition model and word-of-mouth growth, achieving 50-100% year-over-year growth without paid advertising spend. Operating at approximately $60-100M ARR with 110 employees, Expensify demonstrates sustainable growth by focusing on making the product exceptional for individual users who then champion it within their organizations.

Influencer is the largest product review platform outside of Amazon with 4 million micro-influencers and 21 million product reviews. The company evolved from a market research panel (2010) into a social media-driven product discovery platform connecting major brands like Procter & Gamble, L'Oreal, and Estée Lauder with consumer reviewers. They've raised $9M in funding (friends and family ~$1M, Series A $8M from Ebates in 2015) and are tracking to ~$15-18M in annual revenue with healthy repeat customer relationships.

Malwarebytes is a cybersecurity SaaS company founded by Marsen Klazinski in 2008 that provides malware remediation and protection software for consumers and businesses. Starting with a free remediation tool and $40 annual subscription model, the company bootstrapped to $25 million in ARR before raising $80 million and achieving over $130 million ARR by 2017. The company has grown to 650+ employees with 3+ million consumer subscribers and 50,000+ business customers through word-of-mouth reputation and community-driven acquisition, maintaining profitability throughout its growth.

Blue Fish is a luxury concierge service founded by Steve Sims that creates bespoke, high-end experiences for corporate executives, celebrities, and professional athletes. Starting from a Hong Kong nightclub password in 1993, the company evolved into a legitimate business by securing major contracts with New York Fashion Week, the Kentucky Derby, and the Grammys. In 2016, Blue Fish generated nearly $9 million in revenue through curating exclusive, bucket-list experiences tailored to ultra-high-net-worth clientele.

ShareASale is a performance marketing network founded in 2000 by developer Brian Littleton that connects retailers with publishers (bloggers, podcasters, website owners) for affiliate marketing. The company bootstrapped to profitability from day one, grew to over 5,200 retailers and over a million publisher accounts by 2017, generating approximately $14M in annual revenue with ~$5.8M EBITDA before being acquired by Awin (formerly Affiliate Window/Zanox) in January 2017.

Qualtrics is an experience management SaaS platform founded in 2002 by Ryan Smith and his family. Starting with academic customers, the company grew to ~$50M revenue by 2012 while remaining highly profitable, then pivoted to aggressive growth mode, scaling to 9,000+ customers and $250M+ ARR by 2017. The company turned down a $500M acquisition offer and is preparing for a public offering.

Mitch Russo founded Time Slips in 1985 as a tax deduction tracking tool for personal computers, but pivoted to time tracking and billing software when the market changed. After attending Comdex and distributing the product directly, he grew it to $5.6 million in revenue, sold it to Sage in 1994 for $10.5 million (2x top-line valuation), and continued running the business as part of Sage's division until 1998 when it reached $10.5 million in annual revenue.

FreeConferenceCalled.com, founded by David Erickson in October 2001 with a $10 domain purchase, grew to become a dominant conferencing platform serving 40 million monthly users and processing 1 million conference calls per day. The company monetizes through terminating access fees from telecom carriers rather than charging end users, enabling completely free conferencing and achieving 100%+ profit margins in early years. Now at 140 employees and over $100 million in annual revenue, the company remains bootstrapped and debt-free, having rejected a $250 million acquisition offer.

Victor Richie founded TrendPie in April 2015, an influencer marketing agency that connects brands (primarily app developers) with mid-tier influencers on Twitter and Instagram. Instead of paying influencers to post, TrendPie pays them per share at a CPM of $25 per 100,000 impressions, significantly reducing costs. The company grew from $330K in 2015 to $900K in 2016 while bootstrapping entirely from revenue, working with 75+ clients and ~1,000 influencers, with 50% client retention.

Turnkey Podcast Company provides end-to-end podcast production services, from concept and launch through ongoing monthly episode production. Founded by Doug Sandler about six months before this interview (roughly early 2018), the company charges $5-10k for setup and $75-350 per episode for production. With a dozen clients producing roughly 50 episodes monthly across about 10 customers, the company aims to hit $500k in annual revenue by 2018, with a goal of collecting $100k in revenue in the remaining ~3 months of the year from the interview date.