Most founders approach startup growth with a "product-first" mentality, spending months in a vacuum building features before wondering how to get their first ten users. Ben Boasé, the founder of Tech Lockdown, took the opposite approach. By focusing on educational content marketing for SaaS, Ben managed to attract over 2 million organic visitors and build a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) of $15,000 before he ever considered his side project a "real" business. His story serves as a masterclass in how to get 1 million visitors to your website (and then double it) by solving real problems for real people before asking for a single dollar.
The transition from a 9-to-5 developer to a full-time founder wasn't accidental. It was the result of a deliberate organic growth strategy for startups that prioritized high-value, step-by-step guides over traditional advertising. In this deep dive, we will explore the exact playbook Ben used to dominate organic search, manage a 20,000+ subscriber mailing list, and convert a side project into a sustainable, high-margin SaaS company.
The "Value-First" Guide Strategy: The iPhone to Dumbphone Success
One of the most effective educational content marketing examples from Ben's journey is his viral guide on converting an iPhone into a "dumbphone." This wasn't just a simple blog post; it was a comprehensive, step-by-step resource designed for a specific community of users who were "fed up with their smartphone" and looking for ways to reduce digital addiction. According to the Starter Story interview, this single article has been read hundreds of thousands of times and continues to drive consistent traffic today.
The genius of the "Value-First" strategy lies in its generosity. Ben didn't gate this information or hide it behind a paywall. He provided actionable, technical advice that solved a painful problem for free. By showing users how to disable Safari, restrict app downloads, and set up complex content filters, he established immediate authority. When readers eventually needed a more robust, automated way to manage these restrictions, Tech Lockdown was the natural solution. This approach is a cornerstone of modern content marketing for SaaS: solve 80% of the problem for free so that users trust you to solve the remaining 20% with your paid product.
Finding Your Niche: Identifying High-Impact Content Topics
Before you can achieve organic growth strategy for startups, you need to know exactly who you are writing for. Ben’s success came from personal experience; he was solving his own problem with internet use during the 2020 work-from-home shift. However, not every founder has a personal pain point that translates into 2 million visitors. This is where data-driven discovery becomes essential. To replicate this success, many marketers now turn to AI-powered tools to identify what their target audience is actually searching for and who they are listening to.
For instance, Stormy's AI search allows brands to scan platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to see which creators are already discussing niche topics like "digital detox" or "productivity hacks." Instead of guessing which educational topics will go viral, you can use AI to find the existing conversations and double down on the content that is already resonating with your prospective customers. By understanding the competitive landscape through an AI search engine, you can find the "content gaps" that established players are ignoring.
Building an Audience Before a Product: The Reddit Playbook
Ben’s journey proves that you don't need a finished product to start marketing. In fact, he spent an entire year creating free content and building an audience on platforms like Reddit before he ever monetized Tech Lockdown. This is a critical lesson for founder led growth: your audience is your insurance policy. If you have 20,000 people on a mailing list, your product launch is almost guaranteed to succeed because you have already pre-qualified your customers.
The strategy for Reddit marketing, however, requires a delicate touch. You cannot simply post links to your website; you must provide value natively. Ben’s playbook involved posting the entire guide's content directly on Reddit, only adding a subtle reference to his YouTube channel or website at the end. This "no-strings-attached" approach encouraged engagement, upvotes, and front-page visibility. Because the Reddit community felt they were being helped rather than sold to, they were far more likely to click through to his site and join his Mailgun-powered mailing list for future updates.
Vetting Creators and Content Partnerships
As your content begins to gain traction, you may want to scale your organic growth strategy for startups by collaborating with other creators in your niche. Ben mentioned that being on the Starter Story YouTube channel was a massive growth lever. However, as a founder, you must be careful about who you align your brand with. Working with the wrong influencer or creator can lead to wasted spend or, worse, damage to your brand’s reputation.
To avoid these pitfalls, savvy founders use Stormy AI for influencer vetting and fake follower detection. By pasting a creator’s profile URL into an AI-powered analyzer, you can instantly detect bot accounts, analyze engagement rates, and see the true demographics of their audience. This ensures that when you do "throw gasoline on the fire"—as Ben suggests—you are doing so with creators whose audience actually matches your pre-qualified customer profile. This level of vetting is what separates professional content marketing for SaaS from amateur guesswork.
Authenticity as a Competitive Advantage: Why "I" Beats "We"
In the world of founder led growth, authenticity is your greatest weapon against large, faceless corporations. Ben highlighted that while his competitors look "corporate" and "untrustworthy," he chooses to put his face on his brand and write in the first person. He uses "I" instead of "We," even though Tech Lockdown now generates over $15,000 in MRR. This transparency builds a level of trust that a corporate entity can rarely achieve.
This human-centric approach is vital for educational content marketing examples. People want to learn from an expert, not a marketing department. By sharing his failures, his tech stack, and his personal struggle with internet use, Ben turned Tech Lockdown into a relatable brand. For startups looking for how to get 1 million visitors to your website, remember that personality is a differentiator. High-quality content is the hook, but the founder's story is the glue that keeps the audience coming back to the newsletter and eventually the product.
Converting Organic Traffic: Trials, Incentives, and Annual Plans
Driving 2 million visitors is a vanity metric unless you have a system to convert that traffic into revenue. Ben’s conversion funnel is simple but effective: a 14-day free trial followed by a subscription model. He offers a $15 month-to-month plan but focuses heavily on an annual plan that breaks down to $10 a month. This pricing strategy is designed to combat the high churn rates often seen in the productivity and "self-help" SaaS niche.
According to Ben, many users give up after a month of trying to change their habits. By incentivizing the annual plan, he increases the customer lifetime value (LTV) and ensures the business remains sustainable. He tracks all of this through Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused tool that allows him to monitor his organic growth without the bloat of traditional tracking scripts. Once those customers are in the door, managing the relationship becomes the next challenge.
Scaling Outreach and Managing Creator Relationships
As Tech Lockdown grew, Ben had to move from manual tasks to more automated systems. For founders looking to scale their outreach—whether it’s for backlink building, guest posting, or newsletter collaborations—automation is the only way to maintain a full-time job while growing a side project. If you are reaching out to hundreds of creators to promote your educational content marketing resources, manual emailing is a recipe for burnout.
This is where Stormy's AI email outreach and creator CRM become indispensable. Instead of spending hours drafting individual emails, founders can use AI to generate hyper-personalized outreach messages based on a creator's specific content. Stormy’s AI agent can even handle follow-ups automatically, allowing you to build a 20,000-person mailing list or a network of referral partners while you sleep. Centralizing these conversations in a CRM ensures that no deal stage is forgotten, turning a chaotic side project into a professional organic growth strategy for startups.
The Lean Startup Tech Stack: Building for Speed
Ben’s choice of technology was driven by one factor: time constraints. Working a 9-to-5 meant he couldn't waste time on complex infrastructure. He chose Supabase for database management and authentication, and SvelteKit for his web framework. By using Vercel for hosting, he achieved a continuous deployment system that cost him only $20 a month but saved him dozens of hours in dev-ops work.
For SEO and content research, he utilized the Ahrefs light plan, which helped him identify the keywords necessary for content marketing for SaaS success. His focus remained on keeping costs low and profit margins high—hitting a 70% profit margin even with optional tools. This lean approach allowed him to survive being laid off in 2023 and gave him the confidence to double down on Tech Lockdown as his primary source of income.
The 5-Step Playbook for 2 Million Organic Visitors
If you want to replicate Ben’s success and master how to get 1 million visitors to your website, follow this structured playbook:
Step 1: Solve a Real Problem with Free Content
Don't just write for SEO; write to help. Create the most detailed, step-by-step guide in your niche. If you are in the mobile app space, this might mean a guide on User Generated Content (UGC) or App Store Optimization. Give away the "how-to" for free to build trust.
Step 2: Build an Audience on Community Platforms
Identify where your customers hang out—whether it's Reddit, LinkedIn, or niche forums. Provide value natively on these platforms. Use Stormy's AI search to find the most active communities and creators in your space to ensure you aren't shouting into the void.
Step 3: Capture Emails Early
Never let a visitor leave without an invitation to join your newsletter. Use a reliable provider like Mailgun to manage your list. A large mailing list is your most valuable asset for future product launches and founder led growth.
Step 4: Optimize for Conversion and Churn
Offer a trial period to reduce the barrier to entry. Use annual incentives to stabilize your MRR. Use privacy-first tools like Plausible to track which content pieces are actually leading to sign-ups versus just empty traffic.
Step 5: Scale Through AI and Outreach
Once you have a winning content piece, "throw gasoline on it." Use Stormy's AI outreach to find partners, creators, and journalists who might be interested in your research. Automate your follow-ups and monitor your campaign performance with Stormy's post tracking so you can focus on building the product while the AI handles the growth.
Conclusion: From Side Project to Sustainable Success
Driving 2 million visitors and building a $15,000 MRR business doesn't require a massive marketing budget or a team of fifty people. As Ben Boasé demonstrated, it requires a commitment to educational content marketing for SaaS and the patience to build an audience before a product. By focusing on authenticity, leveraging community platforms like Reddit, and using modern AI tools to streamline discovery and outreach, any founder can turn a side project into a full-time career.
The takeaway is clear: stop obsessing over your logo and start obsessing over your customers' problems. When you provide more value for free than your competitors do for a fee, you don't just get traffic—you get a community. Ready to start your own organic growth strategy for startups? Focus on the simplest version of your idea, find your audience, and start shipping value today.