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How Flodesk Hit $27M ARR Bootstrapped With a Viral Footer and Affiliates

Rebecca Shostak explains how Flodesk pre-sold $19 plans from customer interviews and grew through affiliates and a viral email footer without outside funding.

Rebecca Shostak · Flodesk

Published August 15, 2024
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What you’ll learn

Rebecca Shostak, co-founder and chief brand officer of Flodesk, explains how the bootstrapped email marketing platform reached about $27M ARR and over 80,000 paying customers with roughly 50 full-time employees. She covers pre-selling $19 a month plans from customer interviews and mockups, a viral footer and affiliate program behind over 30% of inbound, and a fully self-serve model with no sales team.

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Key moments

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Product market fit before code

“we actually had a viable product before we touched a line of code”
Watch at 10:04

Viral loop share of inbound

“we get over 30% of our total inbound traffic from the viral loop and from word-of-mouth referrals”
Watch at 21:01

Affiliates when you lack audience

“even if you yourself haven't built a large audience, you wanna tap into and leverage people that do”
Watch at 21:53

Quarterly paid marketing spend

“I think we spend around 700 k a quarter.”
Watch at 31:15

Why the product comes first

“if you don't have that one core piece, a product that people love and that really solves a pain, then none of the other stuff matters.”
Watch at 38:13

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About the speaker

Rebecca Shostak

Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer · Flodesk

Company revenue
$27M

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