Hey Greg, awesome feedback. This definitely wasn't meant as a quantitive analysis of our acquisition channels, as you point out. The goal was to elaborate on what channels we use, and how our strategy has changed.
I definitely agree, there's nothing wrong with riding the backs of related companies! It's an amazing way to grow, if things align.
If there's enough interest I'd like to explore a more metrics driven post -- we definitely have that data :)
- Riding on backs of tangentially related companies (I don't mean that in a bad way) was okay, but no conclusive numbers shared.
- Cold emailing: Worth the effort, but no numbers shared.
- Hacker News exposure: no visible effect.
- SEO: ?? Coming soon
Are you just cautious about sharing business metrics (even some?), or could you be tracking your acquisition channels better?
For anyone else who's trying different approaches (as you should be), please take the time to set up your analytics... It's not that hard, and it will pay off ten-fold because you'll learn what's worth spending your precious time on, and what isn't. I'd be happy to answer any general questions about this or offer help.