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How we got 5,000 on our beta SaaS waitlist

Co-create with your audience, run a survey, and publish the findings: the pre-launch campaign behind Growmotely's waitlist

Sarah Hawley · GrowMotely

Published September 1, 2022
About this resource

Sarah Hawley, CEO & Founder of Growmotely, shares:

- Keys to building a community-first brand

- Why you should engage in co-creation

- How to prepare beautiful reports and landing pages to share with your community

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What you’ll learn

Sarah Hawley explains how a delayed product launch became a community-led waitlist campaign: invite people into a shared mission, use their feedback, turn research into durable marketing, work with a lean budget, and reward the community first.

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Key moments

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Turn a delay into research

“tool which we used a survey on the future of work so we reached out to everybody asking them what do you want to know what what do you what is important to you when it comes to the future of work because we are building the future of work and that was how we were able to engage them and then as we got all of those results and published them what it meant for our company moving forward so who is remotely just so you actually have some context about what we're talking about we are assassinabled”
Watch at 00:56

Build around a shared mission

“I'm very uncomfortable as an entrepreneur just sitting here waiting for somebody else to build my product and what do I do with myself and so I saw this as an opportunity to start building our brand and get people interested and engaged in what we were going to launch in in the end it sounds like a very strategic plan and it actually worked out really well I don't know what would have been better though getting my product live sooner might have been more appealing to me but essentially what we did was we used”
Watch at 03:50

Create durable marketing

“emailing people regularly getting them to help us build the future of work co-create the work future of work with us um we spent about 500 dollars a month boosting posts and doing other kind of social media boosting some other social media posts to just continue to grow the community and awareness around what we were doing and then um added one of these pop-ups to our website as well so that all of that extra traffic that was coming to our”
Watch at 06:43

Work with a lean budget

“then also searched journalists in certain areas and added them as connections and then got their email list and it was that was a bit of a lengthy process but I was able to create a press release when we first launched when we first published the survey and I was able to put that out to all of those journalists and we were able to get media that way and then has anyone heard of quoted I think there's some other ones where you can sign up as an expert”
Watch at 09:08

Reward the community first

“um also it reposition it positioned us as experts as I mentioned and continues to attract media and PR and there's the number I was able to find is we just had 20 downloads of this just in the last month and this is a two-year-old survey so you know it's pretty effective tool that just kicks away in the background because journalists and people are always looking for stats and information um so yeah over the last not quite 20 minutes because I rushed through that I showed you how to co-create building”
Watch at 11:58

Building a community-first brand

“Building a community-first brand”
Read slide 2

Growmotely Revenue Growth

“Growmotely Revenue Growth”
Read slide 6

Add visuals/screenshots here :)

“Add visuals/screenshots here :)”
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  • How we got 5,000 on our beta SaaS waitlist - Slide Deck

About the speaker
Sarah Hawley

Sarah Hawley

Founder · GrowMotely

LinkedInTwitter

Founder & CEO of growmotely.com (the first global platform for sourcing, growing and leading remote teams), she's personally fueled by a passion for challenging the status quo of how we work, conscious culture and leadership, community, diversity and equality, and living life on one's own terms. Sarah Hawley is a serial entrepreneur and investor in startups, having founded 8 companies since 2009. Having 3 successful exits before starting growmotely

Company revenue
$405K
Team size
50

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Slide by slide

Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.

19 passages

Community-first waitlist goal

  1. Slide 1Open deck
    Slide text

    Sarah Hawley CEO & Founder of Growmotely Founder500, Sept 2022 How we got 5K+ people on our beta waitlist … Using a community first approach

  2. Slide 2Open deck

    A three-part launch sequence

    The campaign moves from co-creating with a community, to engaging it through a tool and social sharing, then publishing a report for broader reach. The sequence puts community participation before public promotion.

    Slide text

    Over the next 20 minutes: Building a community-first brand I’m going to show you CO-CREATE ENGAGE PUBLISH! Authentic co-creation Asking people to join our mission Determine a tool (we chose a survey) Use tool to engage in co-creation Share a landing page via social media Prepare beautiful report and landing page Share first with community Publicly publish, and use for media / PR

Launch context and talent pool

  1. Slide 3Open deck

    A two-sided remote-work marketplace

    Growmotely is presented as a marketplace matching companies with professionals for full-time remote work. Its launch challenge is attracting both sides of the market.

    Slide text

    What is Growmotely? Saas-enabled, marketplace Culture-match companies and professionals Full-time work, fully remote To launch: chicken or egg? (companies or professionals)

  2. Slide 4Open deck

    Build the talent pool first

    The launch goal is to have enough professionals on the marketplace before companies post roles. The slide frames brand awareness and a critical mass of talent as ways to meet both sides’ expectations.

    Slide text

    Our goal: launch with a pool of talent Professionals expect not to be hired immediately Companies expect applicants when they post roles Brand awareness + critical mass of professionals

  3. Slide 5Open deck

    Three phases shape the campaign

    The timeline starts with gathering survey responses from October to December 2020, moves to preparing the report and media list in January 2021, then publishes and promotes the survey from February through April 2021.

    Slide text

    Pre-launch Campaign Overview

  4. Slide 6Open deck

    Revenue rises after launch

    The chart tracks quarterly revenue from $0 in Q1 2021 to $405,000 in Q2 2022, with launch marked on April 24, 2021. The intervening labels rise from $12,500 to $75,000, $235,000, and $260,000.

    Slide text

    Growmotely Revenue Growth Launched: April 24, 2021

Co-creating around a mission

  1. Slide 7Open deck

    Co-create around shared values

    A community-first brand unites people around shared values and uses inclusive language. The section’s approach is to invite people into the mission, use their feedback, and make participation feel like a long-term journey.

    Slide text

    Asking people to join our mission Begins a long-term journey together For our audience (millennials) this matters Section 1: Co-Create Why build a community-first brand? Uniting and connecting people over common values Language:We, our, us I’m going to show you COMMUNITY-FIRST CO-CREATE MISSION-DRIVEN Authentic co-creation Opportunity to genuinely use their feedback / help Appealing to people’s innate desire to help

  2. Slide 8Open deck

    Community can drive referrals

    Bringing people together around a shared vision and co-creating the future can encourage members to invite friends. The illustration reinforces the idea of a group communicating around a common mission.

    Slide text

    Add visuals/screenshots here :) Community-led growth Bring people together around a common vision and mission Co-create the future with them Empowers them to invite their friends

Survey-led engagement

  1. Slide 9Open deck

    Use a survey to engage

    A branded survey can collect market research while involving the audience in co-creation. The slide pairs thoughtful, timely questions with personal social sharing, company tagging, and beta access for participants.

    Slide text

    Section 2: Engage We decided on a survey Doubled as market research Positions us later as experts I’m going to show you TOOL? ENGAGE SHARE Branded typeform, and landing page Thoughtful questions Leverage mainstream news cycle… timely and topical (6 months into pandemic) Used my personal social media to drive (personal ask) Tagged company, grew our following Invited all participants to Growmotely beta access

  2. Slide 10Open deck

    A branded survey invites input

    The survey welcome screen asks people to share their perspective for a future-of-work report and sets an expectation of about 10 minutes. The branded form makes the research feel like part of the company’s community effort.

    Slide text

    Add visuals/screenshots here :) Branded Typeform survey

  3. Slide 11Open deck

    Promote the survey on a budget

    Email outreach and boosted social posts were the campaign’s promotion channels, with a stated monthly budget of $500. The examples show the survey invitation distributed through email and a social post.

    Slide text

    Add visuals/screenshots here :) Emails + boosted posts: $500 monthly budget

  4. Slide 12Open deck

    Turn traffic into registrations

    The slide connects increased ad spend and web traffic with an email pop-up that collects pre-registrants. The pictured modal pairs an early-access invitation with an email-entry field.

    Slide text

    Add visuals/screenshots here :) Adspend increased web traffic >> email pop-up to collect pre-registrants

Publishing the community report

  1. Slide 13Open deck

    Publish for the community first

    The survey findings become a downloadable report and an interactive landing page, then go first to contributors before the wider community. Media outreach, search optimization, and reusing the report in pitches extend its reach.

    Slide text

    Section 3: Publish Consolidated into a downloadable PDF report Built an interactive landing page with high level info CTA: to download / use with credits I’m going to show you REPORT COMMUNITY-FIRST MEDIA / PR Shared first with all who had completed Then our wider community Thank / honor those who contributed (community-first!) Email out to media and PR contacts Optimize for SEO Reference (attach) whenever pitching media

  2. Slide 14Open deck

    Offer the report as a download

    A landing-page example promotes the Future of Work report with a direct download button. The report cover and call to action show how survey findings can become a public asset.

    Slide text

    Add visuals/screenshots here :)

Media and waitlist results

  1. Slide 15Open deck

    Media coverage supports sign-ups

    The campaign used journalist outreach and responses to media requests, and the slide reports coverage in several publications over three months. It also says traffic and awareness increased and the campaign reached its 5K pre-registration target.

    Slide text

    Generated media + beta sign-ups! Using LinkedIn, I built a list of journalists and shared Used Qwoted to reply to media callouts, attached Results over 3 months: Forbes, Yahoo, Business Insider, USA Today (and more…) Increased web traffic, brand awareness Reached our target of 5K pre-registrations

  2. Slide 16Open deck

    The campaign spans three phases

    The recap timeline runs from gathering survey responses in October to December 2020, to report and media preparation in January 2021, then publication and promotion from February to April 2021.

    Slide text

    Recap Campaign Timeline

  3. Slide 17Open deck

    Results combine spend and launch size

    The campaign reports $3,500 in ad spend and an email list of 5,308, alongside 50 companies and 793 professionals joining at launch. The report also continued attracting media attention and had 20 downloads in the past month.

    Slide text

    Overall results… Total adspend of $3,500 Built email list to 5,308 emails 50 companies and 793 professionals joined at launch Plus: Report positioned us as experts Continues to attract media / PR 20 downloads this past month

  4. Slide 18Open deck

    Recap: co-create, engage, publish

    The closing recap returns to the three stages: build a community-first brand, engage people through a survey and social sharing, then publish the report first to the community and later for media and public relations.

    Slide text

    Over the last 20 minutes… Building a community-first brand I showed you: CO-CREATE ENGAGE PUBLISH! Authentic co-creation Asking people to join our mission Determine a tool (we chose a survey) Use survey to engage in co-creation Share a landing page via social media Prepare beautiful survey document Share first with community Publicly publish, and use for media / PR

  5. Slide 19Open deck

    Thank-you and speaker close

    Sarah Hawley closes the presentation with a thank-you and her Growmotely affiliation. The final slide leaves the audience with the speaker’s identity rather than another campaign step.

    Slide text

    Sept 2022 Sarah Hawley CEO & Founder, Growmotely