I'm using Teachable.com and so far I really like it. I'm producing a course on "How to get massive amounts of free PR" that I will be launching in March 2018.

The reality is "reputable" growth hackers - aren't sitting around on freelance sites waiting for you to hire them. If they are good, they are either (very) gainfully employed at a reputable company making very good salaries or more likely using our super powers to create multimillion dollar companies. So the bad news is there is no platform where you can hire reputable growth hackers BUT here is what you can do:

You can borrow some of their time on here for just a few dollars a minute and learn what you need to learn to do it yourself (or at least get started) or find courses to learn "growth hacking" yourself. Get the tips, learn the techniques, tons of free resources and sites too.

Unfortunately there are no silver bullets and very seldom magic hires that will suddenly get you growth. It's a painful, iterative long process.

And the term growth hacker is very broad. Some of us can help you with SEO/SEM, email list building, partnerships and PR (I'm heavily specialized in PR).

TL:DR Talk to specialized growth hackers, learn, and apply the techniques yourself.

Yes. Hopefully you already own these domain names before publishing them like this but here's my 2 cents:

Crowdsage.com is pretty solid out of those options. All things being equal a .com is going to give you the edge in terms of credibility and many would argue SEO.

it does give you some minor problems that as a stand alone domain it's not clear whether you mean crowds age or "crowd sage" but it's not a bad name.

A brand is what you make it. A great name doesn't guarantee success by any measure but it can help you create a stickier brand and make you easier to find.

I've developed a process for coming up with names that works pretty well. It's a multi-step brainstorming process and it takes time but I would be happy to share it with you or even brainstorm together over Clarity.

Good luck with this.

Adrian

I do what's called a simple "reverse journalist lookup".

Step 1: Identify your "sister company". This is what I call a company that is very similar to you but not a direct competitor. Make sure you are different from your sister company. For example You may offer an on-demand snowplowing service (Uber for snow removal), your sister company would be Uber. Make sure your sister company is fairly well known and written about in the media.

Step 2: Go to Google News. Since Google News focused on just news it will only show you results from news outlets. Search for "Uber" (your sister company)

Step 3: All the results you see are journalists who understand your industry because they have written about Uber. Presumably they understand the "on-demand economy" too. No need to explain to them what you do.

Step 4: Using Google Sheets simply research each relevant journalist (name, publication, relevant link to the article you used to find them, email and twitter handle). Try to build a nice targeted list of 20-50 contacts. Takes time but worth it.

Try using different terms in Google news, several indirect competitors, etc.

There are several tools, hacks, and services out there that will help you build targeted email lists. I can teach you how to do it yourself for free. Also your pitch is really important. Happy to chat/help.

We self funded PopKey (a top 200 Utility app) as one of the first iOS keyboards. We waited until we were in the 6 figure range in users before we raised a dime. However, my business partner and I had to invest close to 1M of our own money to get it to where it is today. Very risky. I'm going to go against the grain here as a guy who has successfully bootstrapped an app and say if you can raise, raise fast and raise early. Just make sure you find right investors. They should be able to help you open the right doors. Also having some capital early will let you hire faster and get more momentum by buying users. Buying users matters more if you're in a winner takes all space and if it's a land grab.

We were lucky that we already had an in-house development team to leverage. We're also generating enough revenue now and have enough financial backing that we can continue to run PopKey independently for a long, long time.

Summary: if you want to go big raise early from the right investors.

My expertise, however is in bootstrapping, growth hacking, and lean start-up principles.

I would need more details to understand that nature of your product but i would encourage the following exercises:

1. Pre-sales: the ultimate validation is getting people to agree to pre purchase your product. What I mean is actual exchange of money. This can be done through kickstarter or less formally by simply getting interested parties to purchase the product before the shipping date directly. I find that many people will say they like your idea but getting them to commit by paying is the best. It helps you with cash flow as well as being taken more seriously by investors if you are looking for investment.

2. PR: start by writing a press release. Press releases by themselves serve little value in actually getting you press but the exercise itself can be very valuable in thinking out what makes your product interesting and unique. The press release should have an interesting and exciting headline (basically your 3 second pitch) and you will be forced to position your product and answer the question "who cares?"

Once your press release is done you can use it as a frame work to individually pitch and tell your story to influencers and journalists who can help get your story out to the world. This is one of the best, and least expensive ways to generate momentum once you launch.

I can help you craft a story angle and strategy for getting free exposure through PR as I've done with hundreds of other start ups.

Good luck!

Nothing is better at attracting tons of customers as having a remarkable product or service. Here's why:

1) Remarkable companies get PR. PR is virtually free and can get you exposure in major media outlets if done correctly. I've generated tens of millions of dollars worth of direct sales over the years through carefully executed PR strategies. PR can really help build your SEO / page rank by building tons of valuable links to your site organically.

2) remarkable products get SHARED. People love to share amazing products with their friends and family via word of mouth and social channels. Again this is free and WOM (word of mouth) is one of the most effective forms of marketing imaginable.

3) remarkable customer SERVICE keeps customers around, reduces churn and increases CLV (customer lifetime value). Just look at Zappos. We make sure to keep our NPS score at 80-90 percent. At CanvasPop our "love guarantee" pays for itself many times over. Make sure you have well trained customer service staff, super fair and easy satisfaction guarantees and return policies and use this to stand out from the crowd.

None of this is easy and it takes time and effort but if done correctly you will eventually not even need to advertise at all! We have build a 10M+ business and do virtually no paid advertising.

Good luck and remember to be remarkable in everything you do.

The honest answer is that it's not hard IF you have a great (remarkable) and cool product. I've placed our products such as DNA11 on csi:NY (entire episode centered around our art), The Amazing Spiderman, Today show and many more. For the most part they contacted us with interest. The way I got us on CSI is by doing something really outside the box. I literally wrote a letter (yes on paper) to the show's creator Anthony Zucker. I simply offered him a free portrait and told him I was a fan. 2 months later the producers contacted me and told me they had written an episode that would feature us. It was amazing to see our idea featured on one of the most watched shows on earth! This was more luck than anything but I had to put myself out there to get the opportunity. The worst thing that can happen is you get a no. Don't be afraid of rejection because 9 out of 10 times you will get rejected. All you need is one yes.

Ok. Real tips:

1. Get on LinkedIn. Get a pro account. Many producers are on there and you can simply InMail them. You just have to make sure your pitch is solid.

2. Send free samples. Use research and hustle to find the names and addresses you need. There's no real easy way to get this info but there are several web sites that offer lists.

3. Never pay for placement. Ever.

4. Get on popular product blogs and get traditional PR on top tier blogs. Product researchers are often on these sites looking for the next big / cool thing. Again, you must have a really cool product for this to work.

Once you get some momentum on these fronts you will magically begin to get lots of inbound Opportunties. That's when things start to get easy. However there's a reason they call it "earned media"

HUSTLE!

If anyone wants to brainstorm more or talk about tactics in detail contact me on Clarity.

I'm the co-founder of www.crated.com a marketplace for photographers and digital artists.

I'm going to say SUPPLY. Simple reason if your buyers land on your site and don't find anything you're done. They won't come back. Also the supply side users can be instrumental in helping promote and drive traffic to your site in the early days by putting them to work.

I used Clarity to speak with Micha Kaufman founder of Fiverr and he's a big reason for us shifting our strategy to building the supply side well in advance of launching our site which is currently in beta. He strongly suggested building SUPPLY.

Really surprised to see Dan Martel saying DEMAND since I know he worked hard to get the first 1000 experts on board before launching. Sorry to call you out Dan :-)

Supply! Supply! Supply!

IMHO.

Adrian :-)
Co-founder
CanvasPop / DNA11 / CRATED