SFMer Stefan Smulders won the Bootstrapper of the Year award Tekpon Awards! Read his top five lessons for every founder below. ...and who knows, you could be next year's award recipient! 🏆 #TekponAwards #SaaS #founder #startup #bootstrapper
SaaS Bootstrapper of the year 2024 🥇| Winner Tekpon Awards🏆 | Building Expandi towards $10M ARR & Brain behind Future Football's Rise | Sharing Real Stories in Public
Won "Bootstrapper of the Year" 🏆 at Tekpon Awards. Scaled Expandi to $9M+ ARR. It has been a roller coaster ride... Here are my top 5 lessons for every founder👇 1️⃣ Choose the Right Cofounders Expandi survived 14 months even without income. All credit to my cofounders Glenn Miseroy & Aad van Vendeloo We combined forces and brought in: ↳ Complementary skills and expertise ↳ Expanded networks ↳ Fresh perspectives ↳ A morale boost They filled in where I fell short. RIGHT CO-FOUNDERS = COMPOUNDING GROWTH. 2️⃣ Join a Community Entrepreneurship is a lonely ride. You won't be related to 99% of the people around you. So how do you keep yourself sane? By being part of supportive communities. Communities mean👇 → Learning from others' mistakes → Sharing valuable insights → Uplifting fellow founders Thanks to Alexander Theuma & SaaStock for giving me a SaaS family to lean on for the last 2 years, where I met some great founders & built some long-lasting relationships 🫶. This includes: - David Neuhaus - Geeta Chandra - Zandra Moore - Alex Delivet - Osman Koc - Anvar T K - Joran Hofman - Yann A. Skaalen Also big kudos to Alexandru Stan for starting Tepkon Awards - an Oscars 🏆 equivalent for the SaaS community. It's not easy to get ~500 SaaS investors, founders, leaders, and visionaries in one single room. It is UNREAL. Big Kudos to the entire team💫 Met great people like 🔥 Bridget Harris Mads 🍎 Wedderkopp Walls.io Thomas Smale Zandra Moore and many more!! 3️⃣ Build a Strong Team A founder is nowhere without a great team. Initially, we focused on hiring university graduates. This strategy lets us nurture talent while keeping hiring costs low. ✅Hire talented people who align with your vision ✅Give them the freedom to do their work ✅Pay them well We're now 50 highly skilled professionals strong 💪 Smart hiring → Talent retention → Growth → REPEAT 4️⃣ Build in Public Here's my Social Growth Snapshot: ↳ LinkedIn: 18K+ followers ↳ X: 34K+ followers Sharing your journey = Growing user trust Building in public: ✅Boosts credibility ✅Humanizes your brand ✅Fosters a strong community Build in public → Foster a community → Expand Network & Customer Trust 5️⃣ Out-of-the-box marketing strategies This one simple practice brought immense growth—experimentation with innovative ideas Our strategies👇 i.) Affiliate programs When others promote your product, you get: → Higher visibility → Boosted conversion rates → Reduced marketing expenses ii.) Micro-influencer partnerships We partnered with niche influencers to target our ideal customers & got: ↳ Heightened user trust ↳ More early paid users ↳ Low ad costs Keep experimenting. Keep trying new ideas. ----------- I'm beyond grateful for this recognition of our hard work. Follow @StefanSmulders for everything SAAS & entrepreneurship 🌟 #startups #SaaS #entreprenuership
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1moCongrats Stefan well deserved best of luck in the match tonight