Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Every founder I've worked with asks the same question at some point: "Should we go viral?" It's like asking if you should win the lottery. Sure, it would be nice, but banking your entire strategy on it? That's where things get messy.
I've seen too many startups burn through resources chasing viral moments while their fundamentals crumble. The reality? Most "viral" growth is actually just good word-of-mouth combined with paid amplification. When I analyzed the data from my B2B SaaS clients, the pattern was clear: sustainable growth beats viral spikes every single time.
Look, I'm not saying virality is evil. But after working with dozens of startups and seeing what actually drives long-term revenue, I've learned that the companies obsessing over viral tactics are usually the ones struggling with retention. Here's what you'll learn from my experience:
Why most viral strategies fail (and what works instead)
The real growth engine that beats viral every time
How to build sustainable growth systems that compound
When viral tactics actually make sense (spoiler: it's rare)
My framework for choosing growth channels that stick
This isn't about being anti-viral. It's about being pro-reality.
The Hype
What every startup founder dreams about
The startup world is obsessed with viral growth stories. You know the ones: "How we got 100K users in 30 days with one simple trick." Every growth conference, every startup podcast, every accelerator demo day - it's all about that magical moment when your product spreads like wildfire.
Here's what the industry typically preaches about viral growth:
Viral coefficient optimization - Track how many people each user invites
Shareability features - Build sharing into every aspect of your product
Content that spreads - Create buzz-worthy moments and controversial takes
Network effects - Make your product more valuable as more people use it
Gamification - Add points, badges, and leaderboards to encourage sharing
This advice exists because viral success stories make great case studies. They're exciting, they get clicks, and they make consultants look smart. Plus, when it works, it works spectacularly. The problem? For every viral success story, there are thousands of failures you never hear about.
The conventional wisdom falls short because it treats virality as a strategy rather than what it actually is: a rare outcome that usually happens when multiple factors align perfectly. Most companies trying to "go viral" end up optimizing for vanity metrics while their core business metrics suffer. They get lots of signups but terrible retention, high awareness but low conversion, social media buzz but no revenue growth.
That's when I realized we needed a completely different approach.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
A few years ago, I was working with a B2B SaaS client who was convinced they needed to go viral. They'd seen competitors getting featured on Product Hunt, trending on Twitter, and getting covered by tech blogs. "We need that kind of attention," they told me. "How do we make our next feature launch viral?"
Sound familiar? This client had decent product-market fit, solid retention numbers, and a growing customer base. But they were obsessed with viral growth because their competitors seemed to be getting all the attention. They wanted me to help them create "viral content" and "shareable moments" around their product updates.
Here's what I discovered when I dug into their data: their best customers weren't coming from viral moments at all. They were coming from the founder's LinkedIn personal branding efforts. The "direct" traffic they were attributing to their homepage was actually people who had been following the founder's content for months, building trust over time, then typing the URL directly when they were ready to sign up.
But they were so focused on chasing viral tactics that they wanted to pivot away from this "boring" LinkedIn strategy. They thought personal branding was too slow, too small-scale. They wanted something that would get them 10,000 signups in a week, not 50 high-quality leads per month.
So I ran an experiment. We tried their viral approach first - coordinated Product Hunt launch, influencer outreach, controversial hot takes on Twitter, the works. The results? A few thousand visitors over a couple of days, maybe 200 signups, and exactly zero of those signups converted to paid plans after their trial ended.
Meanwhile, the "boring" LinkedIn strategy was consistently bringing in leads that converted at 30%+ rates. The viral traffic? Less than 2% conversion. That's when everything clicked for both of us.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After seeing this pattern repeat across multiple clients, I developed what I call the Foundation-First Growth Framework. Instead of chasing viral moments, we focus on building systems that compound over time. Here's exactly how it works:
Step 1: Audit Your Real Growth Sources
First, I audit where high-value customers actually come from. Not where your analytics say they come from, but where they really come from. I look at customer interviews, survey data, and trace the actual customer journey. In most cases, the real growth drivers are hiding behind misleading attribution data.
Step 2: The Trust Timeline Analysis
Then I map out how long it takes for someone to go from first touchpoint to paying customer. For B2B SaaS, this is usually 3-6 months minimum. Viral strategies optimize for immediate action, but most valuable customers need multiple touchpoints over time. We're not selling impulse purchases - we're selling business solutions.
Step 3: Content Strategy Over Viral Tactics
Instead of trying to create viral moments, we focus on consistent, valuable content that builds expertise and trust. This means:
Weekly thought leadership content that demonstrates domain expertise
Case studies that show real results (not vanity metrics)
Behind-the-scenes content that builds personal connection
Educational content that helps prospects succeed
Step 4: The Compound Distribution Model
Rather than putting all effort into one "viral" channel, we build multiple distribution channels that feed each other:
Email newsletter for owned audience
LinkedIn for professional network building
SEO for long-term organic discovery
Partnerships for trusted referrals
Step 5: Relationship-First Metrics
Finally, we track metrics that matter for sustainable growth: email engagement rates, repeat website visitors, direct traffic growth, customer lifetime value, and referral rates. These boring metrics predict long-term success better than viral spikes.
The key insight? Sustainable growth feels boring day-to-day, but compounds into something much bigger than any viral moment.
Viral Myths
True virality is extremely rare and usually involves luck more than strategy
Foundation Focus
Build multiple growth channels that compound over time rather than betting on one viral moment
Trust Building
B2B buyers need 3-6 months of touchpoints before converting - viral tactics optimize for immediate action
Compound Growth
Consistent content and relationship building creates exponential growth without the volatility of viral spikes
The results speak for themselves. Clients who implemented this framework saw:
Consistent Growth: Instead of viral spikes followed by crashes, we saw steady month-over-month growth averaging 15-25%. No dramatic peaks, but no valleys either. The growth just kept compounding.
Better Customer Quality: The customers coming through these channels had much higher lifetime value. They weren't just trying the product because it was trending - they genuinely needed the solution.
Predictable Pipeline: With multiple channels feeding the funnel consistently, revenue became much more predictable. No more crossing fingers and hoping for viral lightning to strike twice.
Lower Acquisition Costs: As content and relationships compound, customer acquisition costs actually decrease over time. Viral tactics usually require constant paid amplification.
The most successful client using this approach went from 50 new customers per month to 200+ new customers per month over 8 months. Not through one viral moment, but through consistent execution of boring, foundational growth tactics that built on each other.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons from focusing on sustainable growth over viral tactics:
Viral growth is a result, not a strategy. It usually happens when you nail product-market fit AND get lucky with timing.
Distribution beats product. A good product with consistent distribution always wins over a great product with sporadic viral moments.
Boring tactics compound. Email lists, SEO, and relationships don't sound exciting, but they build businesses that last.
Trust takes time. B2B buyers especially need multiple touchpoints before they'll trust you with their business.
Attribution lies. Your real growth sources are often hidden behind "direct" traffic and last-click attribution.
Quality over quantity. 100 engaged prospects beat 10,000 viral visitors who disappear immediately.
Multiple channels reduce risk. Viral strategies put all your eggs in one basket. Diversified growth is antifragile.
The biggest lesson? Stop optimizing for screenshots and start optimizing for sustainability. Viral moments make great LinkedIn posts, but sustainable growth builds great businesses.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Focus on trial-to-paid conversion over viral signups
Build email sequences that nurture leads over months, not days
Invest in founder personal branding on LinkedIn
Create educational content that demonstrates product value
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores:
Focus on repeat customers over one-time viral traffic
Build email lists through valuable content, not just discounts
Invest in SEO for long-term organic discovery
Create user-generated content that builds community