Author | Lightnews

Andres

Andres

@entrepreneura.bsky.social

280 followers 170 following 2.6K posts

Decoding how top startups landed their first users

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Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 14h

5/ This same principle built other 9-figure brands. Poo Pourri used an elegant woman on a toilet surrounded by cows. Liquid Death sells water in a beer can. Don't follow the pattern. Break it. That is how you get your first customers. 💥

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 14h

4/ The video was the entire growth engine. It wasn't just an ad, it was the product's launch. This single piece of content, rooted in a bizarre Pattern Interrupt, drove their initial user acquisition and scaled the company to 9-figures. 📈

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 14h

3/ This strategy hijacks attention. The brain expects a certain pattern (health ads are serious). By showing a unicorn pooping, Squatty Potty broke that pattern. This confusion forced viewers to pay attention and, critically, to share.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 14h

2/ Instead of a boring, medical-style ad, they created a viral YouTube video with a charming prince, a mythical unicorn, and... rainbow ice cream. It was designed to make you say, "Wait, What." 🦄

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 14h

1/ Squatty Potty had a simple, low-tech product for a topic nobody wants to discuss. 🚽

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 14h

How Squatty Potty used a pooping unicorn to build a 9-figure business 👇 #GrowthHacking #Marketing #Startups #PatternInterrupt

This Unicorn Changed the Way I Poop - #SquattyPotty

YouTube video by Squatty Potty

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 1d

6/ Good growth hacks are about finding asymmetric leverage. This one is simple, direct, and automated. Use these signals before they get stale. 📈

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 1d

5/ This scales to any niche. Selling Krea AI subscriptions. Scrape for "Graphic Designer" roles. Selling a sales automation tool. Scrape for "SDR" roles. The job board is a public API for market demand.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 1d

4/ The cold email is simple and direct. "I see you're hiring a Database Engineer. Our $10k/year SaaS can make your existing team hyper-productive and may save you that $100k salary." This isn't a feature pitch, it's an immediate ROI calculation. 💰

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 1d

3/ The growth hack: Write a 1-hour scraper. Find every company hiring for "Database Engineer." You now have a perfect, pre-qualified lead list of companies with a burning, expensive problem.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 1d

2/ This company is actively trying to spend $100k/year to solve a problem. This is the strongest buying signal in the world. They are already budgeted and approved for a solution.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 1d

1/ Imagine you just built AI2SQL, a tool converting natural language to SQL. The standard playbook is to find users. The smart playbook is to find problems. A job post for a "Database Engineer" isn't just a job post, it's a public declaration of pain.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 1d

How a SaaS like AI2SQL could land its first users: by finding companies hiring "Database Engineers" and offering to save them $90k. 👇 #SaaS #growth #startups #marketing

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 2d

4/ You can find hundreds of these open dashboards. Search Twitter for "simpleanalytics.com" or "plausible.io". The data is out there. Go find it and build your own distribution engine.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 2d

3/ This isn't a one-off trick. His other startup, Interior AI, gets a massive amount of traffic from its Android app. The lesson is clear: find the platforms and directories where your target audience already is and dominate them. 📈

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 2d

2/ Pieter Levels' Photo AI is a great example. By looking at his public Simple Analytics dashboard, you can see he gets a significant amount of traffic from a site called "There's An AI for That". Getting listed on TAAFT is a powerful, repeatable strategy for any new AI product. #startupgrowth

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 2d

1/ Many successful startups share their web analytics openly. This is a goldmine for reverse-engineering their distribution. If you're in a similar niche, you can replicate their strategy to get your first users. 🚀

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 2d

Successful startups are openly sharing their playbooks for acquiring users. You just need to know where to look. 👇

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 3d

5/ The lesson is clear. Stop searching for a revolutionary idea. Instead, find a small, successful business with a clever growth strategy. Analyze its playbook. Then, execute better. The map to your next million-dollar SaaS is already drawn.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 3d

4/ You can identify these companies with simple OSINT. The lead-gen tool's description, tech stack (WordPress, jQuery), and competitor (Uplead) all point to a company like LeadSwift. The blueprint is there. The market demand is proven by 43 interested buyers on the listing.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 3d

3/ Another example: A lead generation platform with ~$50k MRR. The growth hack here is even more powerful because it's systematic. They built a business on 100% organic traffic from Google. A hands-off, automated machine with a deep moat, validated by a 4.7 Trustpilot rating from 380+ reviews.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 3d

2/ Case in point: An AI Photography Studio listed for sale. It hit $2.1M in profit and $76k MRR. Their entire growth engine was ignited by a single TikTok video that went viral. This wasn't luck. It was building a compelling product for a specific audience and distributing it on the right channel.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 3d

1/ The best startup ideas are not invented, they are deconstructed. Marketplaces like Acquire are goldmines of validated, profitable businesses. Founders publish everything: revenue, tech stack, and most importantly, their customer acquisition channels.

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 3d

The fastest path to $1M ARR isn't a new idea. It's reverse-engineering someone else's proven success. The blueprints are hiding in plain sight. 👇 #SaaS #Growth #AI

Andres @entrepreneura.bsky.social · 4d

10/. Lesson: Don't optimize for average satisfaction. Optimize for the most intense positive moment + the final impression. It's a powerful, often overlooked, growth lever.