A screen recording of a chatbot trained on a document that explained how Chatbase itself worked, posted to a tiny follower count with no launch coordination.

“This Demo shows a chatbot that was trained on a document explaining how chatbase worked.”

First mover in the category, a demo that produced an immediate reaction, and general ChatGPT attention to ride on.

“It had the "wow" factor of being able to upload your own personal documents and chat with them”

After his own tweets took off, accounts with large AI audiences posted about Chatbase without being asked.

“From there, AI influencers started posting about it”

The category filled up with near-identical tools, so the novelty that made influencers post disappeared.

“the problem is it's not a good long-term strategy”

A Product Hunt launch, listed among the methods he used to keep acquiring customers after the viral wave.

“Launching on Product Hunt”

He groups Product Hunt with Indie Hackers, Reddit and AI directories as the sources of the first wave of users, without splitting out how much each one contributed.

“Tweets and posts on platforms like Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, Reddit, and AI directories drove the first wave of users.”

Posting in relevant subreddits and staying active on Indie Hackers, with the framing deliberately set as a story rather than a product drop.

“Posting to relevant subreddits (a story works better than "here is a tool I made")”

Submitting Chatbase to AI tool directories as a standing acquisition method.

“Submitting Chatbase to AI directories”

After the viral wave they shifted to durable channels and built out written resources around AI customer support and chatbot implementation.

“SEO and content marketing: Building a library of resources around AI customer support and chatbot implementation.”

Working with customer companies on case studies and putting their logos on the site as social proof, aimed at the business buyers they moved towards after the pivot.

“Direct partnerships: Collaborating with companies for case studies and adding logos to our site for social proof.”