The Start:

Joel Spolsky & Michael Pryor, the founders both developers & met while working at a startup.

They started a company Fog Creek from which the first prototype of Trello was spun out. Their MVP? Create a to-do list that was only 5 items long.

The Problem:

The founders saw companies sticking notes on boards & walls to get s**t done. The value prop emerged - An all-purpose tool that turns sticky notes into a collaborative & real-time tool for cross-functional teams.

All purpose tools are hard af to build since users request features specific to their use-case. Trello was built like lego blocks & was executed in 4 stages:

• see feature request
• identify underlying pain point
• build for the pain point
• convert into all purpose feature

Getting their first customers:

Trello was an all-purpose tool that turns sticky notes into a collaborative & real-time tool for cross-functional teams. Since Trello was an all-purpose tool, the founders made sure there was ZERO friction to use Trello so they made it completely free to use.

Their goal was to reach 100 million users & monetize the 1%. Their formula was to capture a big chunk of the market, charge a small fraction, and make a bunch of $$$.

Freemium pricing brought in 500,000 users in the first year for Trello. They launched at TechCrunch Disrupt & were gaining 1000s of users each day with ZERO paid marketing.

Trello user acquisition + expansion revenue growth loop is simple but effective.

• A user is on the free plan
• She invites a colleague, who has never used Trello to join her board
• Trello Gold is gifted to her for 1 month for referring a new user
• Trello uses Feature as marketing. The Power ups feature allow users to build integrations with 3rd party apps.

When a new Power-Up is launched, the 2 companies promote it on websites, blogs & social media.

Organic growth + high-quality backlinks + cross promotions = more users.

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