Glasp

How Two Founders Grew Glasp to 500K Users in Just 3 Years

Founders

Profitable

Yes

Year Started

2021

Customer

B2B & B2C

Founders

Profitable

Yes

Year Started

2021

Customer

B2B & B2C

Who is Kazuki Nakayashiki?

Kei Watanabe, co-founder of Glasp, has a background that spans consulting, advertising, and product management in both Japan and the U.S. Educated at Chiba University and the University of Washington, he now works on leveraging AI for social learning from his base in Silicon Valley.

What problem does Glasp solve?

Glasp effectively addresses the challenge of fragmented online information by enabling users to highlight, organize, and share web content, simplifying knowledge management and fostering collaborative learning, thereby offering significant utility to researchers, learners, and avid readers looking to streamline their digital study practices.

How did Kazuki come up with the idea for Glasp?

Kei Watanabe, with expertise in consulting and product management, co-founded Glasp to tackle fragmented online information. Realizing the demand for better knowledge management, Glasp's early development saw 500 to 750 potential user interactions, shaping a tool that now fosters collaborative learning.

How did Kazuki build the initial version of Glasp?

Glasp was built as a social web highlighting tool that allows users to efficiently capture and share knowledge from web pages and PDFs. The initial development of Glasp did not start with extensive user interviews; instead, it was created primarily for personal use by the founders before being shared with the public. They began by focusing on web article highlighting due to copyright issues with Kindle. The development involved a tech stack comprising Vanilla JS, Next.js, Swift, Kotlin, Rust, and the Google Cloud Platform, leveraging the GPT API for summarization features. Building the first version of the software was a challenging process, involving iterations based on feedback from extensive user onboarding calls and live experiments with potential users to refine and improve its functionality.

How did Kazuki launch Glasp and get initial traction?

Onboarding Calls

During the early stages of Glasp, the founders adopted a highly personalized approach to engage with potential users. They created a scenario where users felt they needed an onboarding call to access Glasp. A waitlist was established, and potential users who matched their target demographics were invited to Zoom calls. These sessions allowed the founders to observe how users interacted with their browser, gather feedback, and build a connection with early adopters.

Why it worked: This tactic created a sense of exclusivity and personal connection, encouraging users to engage more deeply with the product. It also provided valuable insights directly from users, which could be used to refine the product.

Slack and LinkedIn Outreach

Glasp's founders leveraged existing tech and product management communities on Slack and LinkedIn to reach their first users. They used direct messaging to introduce people to Glasp and explain its mission. Automation was employed to efficiently manage and scale these outreach efforts, allowing the team to connect with a large number of potential users.

Why it worked: Direct engagement in professional communities allowed Glasp to reach an audience that would likely be interested in their tool. By targeting groups related to product management and tech, they were able to find users who would see the value in Glasp and be likely to use it.

Word-of-Mouth and Social Sharing

Given the social aspect of Glasp, the platform's design encouraged sharing and visibility among users. Highlights created by users were public by default, which naturally led to a social sharing effect. This design choice was intended to facilitate organic growth as new users were brought in by seeing shared content.

Why it worked: By making highlights public, Glasp leveraged user-created content as a marketing tool. This not only spread awareness but also validated the product through genuine user engagement. New users discovered Glasp through shared links and highlights, which helped in building a community and growing their user base organically.

What was the growth strategy for Glasp and how did they scale?

Networking and Direct Outreach

Glasp primarily used direct outreach and networking to grow its user base. During the initial development of their product, the founders conducted onboarding calls with 500 to 750 potential users. They utilized a strategy of involved engagement by sending direct messages through Slack communities, LinkedIn’s group features, and even automated outreach using Python-based scraping to target users efficiently. The founders shared that building a network by offering help and engaging with tech events and communities was crucial in expanding their connections. This hands-on approach allowed them to directly gather feedback and integrate user needs into their product development process.

Why it worked: This approach was successful because it allowed Glasp to meaningfully connect with their target audience, incorporating their feedback to refine the product. The personal touch of onboarding calls helped educate and engage the users, fostering a loyal community and converting them into active users who effectively shaped the product’s development to meet real-world needs.

Social Product Features

Glasp integrated social features within its platform to fuel growth via community engagement. The tool enables users to highlight, organize, and share online content publicly. This social aspect lets users access and learn from each other’s highlighted content, effectively creating a community-led growth mechanism. Any content highlighted via Glasp is public by default, which supports the platform's social interaction, leading to organic product-led growth.

Why it worked: The social sharing functionalities encouraged viral growth, as users naturally showcased their profiles and findings through the platform, enticing others to join and explore shared knowledge. This product-led growth was cost-effective, leveraging existing users for further expansion due to the network effects created when users share useful content with their peers.

SEO and Product-led Content

Another growth strategy Glasp employed was optimizing for SEO by generating AI-generated content. By summarizing YouTube videos with ChatGPT and creating searchable content from user highlights, Glasp improved its visibility on search engines. This method contributed to driving traffic to their site as their searchable pages became indexed on search engines like Google.

Why it worked: This strategy effectively increased organic traffic by capturing long-tail search queries related to content highlighted within Glasp, tapping into audiences searching for specific annotations and educational insights. The content engine, producing over 2,400 pieces a day, ensured a steady influx of visitors discovering Glasp through organic search, further driving user acquisition.

Word-of-Mouth and Organic Growth

Glasp took advantage of word-of-mouth as a key growth channel. By not spending on traditional marketing for over a year, Glasp relied on direct user recommendations and feedback to spread the word about their platform. The inherent value of the tool in organizing and sharing knowledge made it beneficial for researchers and learners to advocate Glasp purely through their experiences.

Why it worked: The authenticity and effectiveness of word-of-mouth drove genuine interest and trials from potential users. As users found functional benefits in their daily learning and research tasks, they were more likely to recommend the platform to peers, fostering a trustworthy and expanding network organically across different niches without incurring significant marketing expenses.

What's the pricing strategy for Glasp?

Glasp offers a free social web highlighter tool, with a paid tier feature allowing for private highlights, catering to professionals needing confidentiality for $12/month.

Snapshot of Glasp Pricing as of Oct.2024

What were the biggest lessons learned from building Glasp?

Leverage Community Engagement: Glasp effectively engaged users through proactive outreach, holding 500 to 750 onboarding calls, which provided detailed user insights and helped shape the final product. This highlights the importance of personal engagement and community-building for feedback and growth.
Adaptive Marketing Strategy: Initially unsuccessful influencer outreach led Glasp to adapt by offering financial incentives, improving their engagement rates. This emphasizes the need for flexible marketing strategies that respond to trial and error.
Team Compatibility: Prioritizing team compatibility helped Glasp avoid common co-founder conflicts. They focused on selecting team members whose values aligned closely, suggesting the importance of strong foundational relationships in startups.
User-Centric Development: Glasp started without extensive user interviews, developing the product for their own use first, then adapting based on user feedback. This approach underscores the benefit of using real-world testing to refine product offerings.
Mission-Driven Value: The founding vision of making knowledge accessible drove Glasp's strategic decisions, showing the power of a clear mission in guiding business growth and community resonance.

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