How one of our founders gained 10,000 sign-ups for her B2C marketplace

One of our founders is building a marketplace in the travel space. This is what she’s achieved to date, having spent $20,000 of her own money (all while remaining employed full time):

• Completed user validation exercises
• Nailed down value proposition
• Launched website
• Posted organically in Facebook groups etc.
• Built a waiting list of over 200 people (supply side)
• Signed up first 5 paying users (demand side)
• Created MVP (integration of WordPress, Fillout, Google Sheets and Gmail)
• Manually facilitated first transaction
• Sold story to mainstream press
• Arranged for reporters to cover “first-of-its-kind” event
• Created video ads using freelancers
• Ran video ads on social channels
• Over 10,000 signups (supply side)
• 114 requests for help on a flight (increasing daily)
• Successfully completed 3 more transactions
• 51 more transactions currently being matched
• AU $77,406 platform inventory value
• AU $679 average transaction value
• Investor pitching complete with warm contacts
• Investor outreach started (first 75 cold emails)
• First investor meetings scheduled
• Next 75 emails ready to send post investor feedback

She’s an exceptional founder, but it shows how you don’t need to spend a fortune on your startup if you follow the right process.

Wish us luck with the raise.