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Dear starters,
Pat Walls (PW) here, creator of Starter Story.
As you know, every Thursday we send you an email highlighting the best case studies that we've published on our platform. We also tell how they align with bigger trends - so we can help you be a better founder.
This is a bite-sized summary of the most interesting experiences that starters have shared with us.
I hope you enjoy it!
- PW, DB & SW
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Join Starter Story Premium
As a newsletter subscriber, you can sign up for Starter Story and start enjoying unlimited access to our products and repository of 2,500+ case studies.
Use the code NEWSLETTER22 to get a 25% discount on our Starter Story Premium membership. That’s just $2.58 per week, an absolute no brainer investment in your business.
Or get even more with our Premium Plus membership (deals, courses, mentorship). With the promo code NEWSLETTERPLUS22 you'll get access for just $4.74/week a 25% discount on its regular price.
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$3.6M/YEAR
"Ocushield’s flagship product is our blue light blocking screen protector and filters for smartphones, tablets, laptops, and monitors, selectively filtering harmful blue light while maintaining a crystal clear image, unlike software...ahem, night shift.
Serving over 150,000 + customers in 80 countries, Ocushield generates $300k per month - & this all started from a university research study I did 6 years ago. Our products are sold in Verizon, BestBuy, HSN & URBN Outfitters."
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$1.2M/YEAR
"The surprising fact is that in our case, crowd marketing (for example, on Quora and Reddit) is very effective in promotion, increasing traffic to the website, and forming a brand image. We actively share expert opinions on topics related to our products on these platforms and recommend our solutions to users without spam."
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2,500+ founders of successful businesses share with you their exact timeline of building their business to thousands of customers.
Learn from real people sharing real stories. The struggles, the wins, the good, and the bad.
How do people get inspired and find great business opportunities? How do they get their 10 first clients? What challenges do they face at every stage and how to overcome them?
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$84K/YEAR
"The app currently has around 5000 downloads a month, and average revenue of US$10K a month. When I decided to create this app I had no app-building or software background, no money to invest, and no potential investors. All I had was an idea and the belief that it was possible."
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$10.8M/YEAR
"A big temptation, especially in the early days, is to work with prominent and recognizable partners, for instance, in marketing or SEO. Most of our experiences regarding such collaborations were negative. We did not achieve what we were promised; responsiveness also left a lot to be desired. The lesson we've learned is that it's better to choose smaller agencies, for whom you'll be a big client, than large ones, who will treat you like one of many."
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$240K/YEAR
"Look how your competitors have gotten traction - and then copy them when appropriate. TikTok might not be the best place to learn when all of your competitors are using Google Ads and SEO. Instead, try to beat them at their own game - chances are, you’ll learn more about what your customers want and what messaging works from doing so than you would by taking shots in the dark."
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Sponsored by Klaviyo
Our newsletter just hit 160,000 readers 🎉
Klaviyo is the tool we've used to grow our list to over 163K readers!
At Starter Story, we add over 10,000 new readers to our newsletter every month, mostly thanks to Klaviyo's opt-in tools (such as popups and advanced logic we can do on our site).
Additionally, we generate thousands in additional revenue every month using their email marketing flows and segmentation tools (really cool stuff if you dig into it).
Obviously, I have to say good things since they are our sponsor... but being 100% transparent: Klaviyo has helped us grow our business in a very meaningful way over the last couple of years.
Get Klaviyo today!
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$120K/YEAR
"Keep in mind the most important part of any business is sales. What we had to learn, we learned the hard way. With very little sales experience we grabbed the phones and started dialing.
We looked for niches in the niches and started to send emails, calls, texts, Instagram messages, Facebook messages, LinkedIn connections, we were all working on the sales part. It was tough and tiring. Once we got to the decision-maker, we tried to make a close even if it would mean we did it for free. What counted in the first stage was references."
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$1.8M/YEAR
"Getting customers in the very early days was a question of chasing partnerships. We did a bunch of webinars with various partners on how to attract more customers as a freelancer and collected a lot of leads here. Simultaneously we got set up with paid search directed towards a few lead magnets that showed to work best.
Over the last twelve months, we’ve grown the business from 0 to around €130k monthly revenue."
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$1.2M/YEAR
"The best tool to attract and retain customers for us has always been Google. We used to do AdWords at the start but gradually moved to SEO optimization.
We managed to bring our main website to the top of Google search results by many keywords, for example, if you search for a UAE residence visa, you will find us first.
I would say that the production of unique content is the most efficient tool [to acquire customers]. It is also the most time-consuming, but trust me it pays off."
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Looking for a job, or some work on the side?
Get your feet wet before you take the plunge into founder life.
Many of the companies we interview are hiring in operations, design, marketing, engineering, and more...
Check out our jobs portal for all new opportunities - new jobs are added every day!
P.S. Again, a huge thank you to Klaviyo - our sponsor at Starter Story. By using Klaviyo, we've grown our email list to 163K and added thousands of dollars in revenue per month through email marketing. Get Klaviyo today!
Looking for a business idea? Find yours from our database of 6,000+ business ideas.
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Want to see exactly how 2,500+ founders built businesses to thousands of customers? Join Starter Story today.
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Thanks for reading.
—Pat Walls (PW), David Bustos (DB), Samantha Walls (SW), & the rest of the Starter Story team :)
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