Bootstrapped and Global from Day One: The Linktree Story

Linktree began in 2016 somewhat by accident, as a side project that my brother Anthony Zaccaria, my friend Nick Humphreys, and I created to resolve a problem we felt was uniquely ours.

At this point we had been working in the digital space for many years and were running Instagram accounts for bands and festivals that we managed at a digital agency, posting tours, latest songs, and merch. We were bored with having to alter the link in our Instagram bio every time we posted something. Not only was this time consuming, but it was also losing helpful content and clicks.

We needed a launchpad that might help us point our followers in the direction we were headed and give them a snapshot of our clients’ current projects. And so the first iteration of the Linktree platform was born.

First steps

It took our developer just six hours to get it up and running. While it was a easy solution in comparison with today’s platforms, after we shared it with a few friends and colleagues in the industry, we saw a significant increase in interest through word of mouth.

We had no concept that Linktree would evolve into a platform with a much larger vision to simplify the social economy and empower all people, no matter digital skills, to aggregate content and amplify their voices so they will grow, sell more, curate more, and connect with audiences online beyond a single social channel.

As the platform evolves, the goal stays the same: to drive and engage audiences to take more helpful actions by simplifying the user experience online, directing consumers exactly where they need to go, and reducing friction and disconnect between platforms.

Grow and scale without funding

Linktree has been money flow positive and fully bootstrapped since day one. Our freemium business model, along with meaningful feedback and collaboration from our users, has helped us sustain growth without any outside investment.

We consider in democratizing the crowded social economy, which is why Linktree is completely free to all users (we provide a paid monthly PRO subscription for users who need to go even deeper). After we launched Linktree PRO in April 2017, a whole lot of users upgraded, confirming that we had built a product that individuals saw enough value in to pay for, and that we had a great platform to scale and grow.

The decision to retain ownership of the business means we have full control and are 100% responsible for all decisions.

Collaborating with our users has helped Linktree grow to be a trusted brand where consumers can quickly find what they need and minimize time spent scrolling and searching. We pay close attention to analyzing the products of our user base to grasp overall trends, how we are getting used by different verticals, and what features are hottest to assist inform how we grow and evolve the platform. Even though consumers use their Linktree in so many alternative ways, there is a consistency of function and form that establishes visitor behavior.

Until last yr, we didn’t spend a dime on marketing and focused our efforts more on product development and design, prioritizing features that might profit the widest user base. Through our users’ collaboration and feedback on product updates and latest features, we created a product they wanted to make use of, which resulted in unbelievable organic growth.

The Power of Community

In the starting, unbeknownst to us at first, Linktree was submitted to Product Hunt. Over 3,000 people signed up overnight, which caused our server to crash. Not only did we realize the importance of getting a powerful server that might handle high levels of bandwidth, but we learned that we had actually built something that was solving a significant issue that many people didn’t even know existed.

At the same time, Instagram effectively shut us down, marking all Linktree links as spam. Our users rallied to support us and filed over 41,000 complaints. Within an hour, Instagram reinstated us and apologized. This experience confirmed the validity of Linktree and showed us an opportunity to have interaction and work with our users to strengthen and evolve the platform in a way that works best for them.

Mental health issues

While growing a startup sometimes requires late nights with little sleep, it’s essential to make sure that’s not the norm. In the early days of Linktree, our work hours were long and our lives lacked balance—I rarely left work before midnight and didn’t get enough sleep.

Inevitably, this led to a spinal injury that left me bedridden for nine months. I missed a lot, including my brother’s wedding, but it forced me to decelerate. It helped me understand what it was wish to be stressed and how burnt out I used to be before the injury.

Mental health is our top priority immediately. If you’re not healthy, you’re not performing at your best or reaching your full potential. This is very true in the current climate, as many entrepreneurs navigate economic challenges and latest distant teams while attempting to keep every little thing running easily.

My advice is to acknowledge the signs of burnout and stress so you’ll be able to step away when you might want to, and encourage your team to do the same.

Build to scale

One of my biggest lessons from growing Linktree was building scale from the very starting. None of us could have predicted how quickly our additional work would grow. In the starting, our small team was under incredible pressure to maintain up with demand.

We’ve learned that initial resistance to hiring resources can result in pressure hiring later on. Hiring specialized team members to administer things like office management, HR, or finance frees you as much as focus on growth and gives you more time to bring your personal unique skills to the table – and as a result, business grows exponentially.

Investing in good people will set you up for even greater success sooner slightly than later. No one can do it alone!

Navigating the Social Economy

We founded Linktree to resolve what we saw as a unique problem and quickly realized that not only was it a problem felt around the world, but it was also a problem that was growing as social media continued to fragment.

Our broad subscriber base has incredibly diverse use cases – we’ve seen Linktree used in e-commerce stores, in place of internet sites, as a showcase, and after all on various social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Since then, we’ve focused on building a product that reduces friction and helps users reach their content at the right time and place – which is more essential than ever.

As much of the world continues to adapt to COVID-19 shutdowns and cancellations, brands and creators are scrambling to expand their online reach, offer latest services digitally, and navigate a crowded social economy.