Gmelius’ journey to 100k daily active users with a $0 marketing budget. Try Gmelius now: https://gmelius.com

1. Growing a SaaS startup
Gmelius’ journey to 100K daily active users
with a $0 marketing budget.
Dr. Florian Bersier
Founder & CEO @Gmelius
Gmelius.com
@gmeliusTM

2. Hello Gmelius!
Lightweight CRM and shared inbox targeting SMEs
Freemium SaaS, official Google Partner
150K daily active users
Founded Q4 2016, 8 FTEs

3. What worked...

4. 1+ bn active Gmail users
Techcrunch Feb. 2016
50m
60%
Gartner Aug. 2017
Google Sep. 2016
CRMMarket worth
$ 85+ bn
by 2025
We picked a large & fast-growing TAM.
of Fortune 500
companies use G Suite
businesses to
use G Suite by 2019 Avg. 7Employees per SME
Source: OECD 2017

5. Why does a large TAM matter?
● Existing competition and so qualified leads!
● SaaS are cheap and require a large pool to get sustainable.
● Word-of-mouth is easier.

6. We did not reinvent the wheel.
Gmelius technology integrates with
Gmail, Inbox, G Suite.

7. Why did we choose to integrate our solution?
Being integrated, our customers (SMEs) don’t need to:
● Change their work environment ($$)
● Train their teams ($$$)
Besides, Gmelius always remains visible in their inbox helping user
retention.

8. We started from a very simple MVP
… and then listened to our customers for all our product iterations.

9. Why listen to your users?
● This ensures Product / Market Fit
● This helps prioritize & define the product roadmap
● This builds a community of loyal users (and good reputation)

10. We had a go-to Press
strategy from day 1.

11. Why choose Press over Paid Traffic?
● Long-term traffic: constant organic growth, SEO
● Niche publications => qualified leads
● Helps build reputation, expertise
● Nurture contacts with journalists (good surprises will happen...)

12. We added a viral component.
Gmelius makes possible to
collaborate with other team
members right inside your inbox.

13. Why focus on your viral coefficient?
Because traffic acquisition is:
● Costly: content creation, paid campaigns;
● Long: SEO benefits take time;
● Noisy: low conversion rate.

14. What didn’t work...

15. We should have focused on our KPIs from the start.
Building a Metrics
dashboard for your
company is vital and
should be developed
along your MVP.

16. Why build your KPI early?
Don’t trust your gut. Trust your metrics. This will help you:
● Identify pain points;
● Measure the impact of your decisions & act accordingly.
FYI: @Gmelius, we use Metabase, Google BigQuery and Stitch to measure everything.

17. We invested too much time on social media.
We wasted a lot of time and energy
trying to acquire users via SNS.
This did not work at all.
We now use social media only to stay
in touch with our existing user-base.

18. We hosted our blog on Medium.
… which was a bad decision in terms of SEO, branding and
content management.
Don’t do it.

19. We hired freelancers to create content.
This led to poor-quality or generic content with low added-value.
My advices:
● Source content from
existing employees to
ensure subject-matter
expertise.
● Hire in-house writers as
soon as you can.

20. Gmelius Ltd
3 chemin du Pré-Fleuri
CH-1228 Plan-les-Ouates
https://gmelius.com
Selected as 1 of the 50
Swiss startups in which to
invest in 2018.
Dr. Florian Bersier
LinkedIn: florianbersier.com