u/bassamtg

we build Stacks, a platform that turns any ecommerce store into a native mobile app, website, and pos system. we've been active on reddit for a few weeks now, mostly in saas and building in public communities.

what actually moved the needle:

the posts where we shared a real problem we were solving, without pitching, got 10x the engagement of anything that looked promotional. our best performing post was a question asking other founders about their marketing strategies. no mention of our product at all. several people ended up finding stacks through our profile afterward.

what didn't work: commenting with our link, anything that read like a press release, trying to post in communities that weren't already talking about our problem.

the investor piece surprised us. a few investors found us through reddit posts and reached out directly. we weren't targeting them at all.

it works if you're genuinely part of the conversation. it doesn't work if you're broadcasting into it.

we talk a lot about what to add - more features, more channels, more content. but i'm curious what people dropped that made the biggest difference. for us it was trying to be everywhere at once. what did you cut?

We were a small team with an early product, some paying customers and a big vision, but no warm intros to investors. No VC network, no YC badge, no connections

So we treated fundraising like a sales problem

We subscribed to sales navigator, built a list of +2000 angel investors that fit our thesis and reached every single one via LinkedIn and email over a few weeks

Here's what the funnel looked like:

+2000 investors reached

27 meetings booked (1.3% conversion)

3 made it to serious conversations

1 wrote a check. Money in the bank within 3 months of the first message

A lot of people told us this was the wrong approach. But here's what we actually learned.

What worked:

Leading with a crisp problem statement, not the product. We opened with the market gap, not features

Showing early traction before asking for a meeting. Even small numbers signal you're not just an idea

LinkedIn outreach converted slightly better than email - shorter, more direct

Following up twice. Most of the 27 meetings came from followup #1 or #2, not the first message

What didn't:

Long intros. Anything over 4-5 lines got ignored

Leading with the deck. Attaching a deck upfront killed reply rates

Generic messages. Anything that didn't reference their portfolio or thesis got no response

The part that was very valuable as well:

Of the +1900 who didn't invest - some of the most valuable relationships we built came from that list. One conversation led to an advisor who's now deeply embedded in our product direction. Several others opened doors in markets we were trying to enter.

The money was the goal, the network was the prize we didn't expect

the takeaway: Fundraising is a numbers game with a sales layer on top. If you don't have warm intros, build the pipeline yourself. It works, it just takes volume, discipline, and a message that earns a reply

Currently deep in our seed round running a similar process. If you're a founder figuring out how to build your investor pipeline from scratch, dms are open, happy to share the actual sequences and how we filtered the list

not looking for "post on reddit and do cold outreach" type answers. i mean what specifically worked for your product, your audience, your situation. the honest version, not the cleanedup one you'd put in a blog post.

we built a tool that automatically converts shopify, woocommerce, and instagram stores into native iOS/android apps + website + POS, in under 2 minutes.

we launched our affiliate program a few months ago and wanted to share it here since it's performed well for the affiliates already promoting us.

the structure:

$100 per premium plan conversion (paid as 80% of each monthly payment until you hit $100)

$50 per basic plan conversion

$100 minimum payout, sent monthly on the 15th

30-day cookie window

real-time dashboard to track clicks and conversions

why it converts:

our free plan is genuinely free (20 products, 10 orders/channel) so there's no hard sell, you're just pointing store owners to try something free. paid plans start at $20/month. the "your store as a mobile app in 2 minutes" pitch does the work for you.

we have 200+ active subscribers so there's real proof to point to.

who it works best for:

content creators in the ecommerce/shopify space, newsletter writers, anyone with an audience of small business owners or online sellers.

signup is at affiliate.stacksmarket.co - takes about 2 minutes.

happy to answer any questions about the program structure.

(disclosure: this is our own product and affiliate program)