GTM Sauce

B2C · crypto airdrop finder

How Earnifi grows

8 tactics and 8 figures from 1 interview.

About Earnifi

What it is
Website where Ethereum users enter their address and instantly see unclaimed airdrops (free token payouts) they can claim.
Who it's for
Ethereum users active in DeFi, trading and governance
Business model
freemium; pay to claim airdrops found
Pricing
Free search; every airdrop claim paywalled (price not stated)
Launched
during a month-long hackathon (crypto boom)
Team
Solo founder
Funding
bootstrapped
Outcome
Acquired by Bankless after two years at >$1M ARR

As described in the interviews, not independently verified.

Earnifi's 8 tactics

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

10,000 organic sign-ups in 48 hours

Shipped the site to a public URL and posted a deliberately crafted launch tweet with a short video of the search running on an Ethereum address that had many unclaimed airdrops, teasing what was possible. People retweeted partly out of a charitable urge to help others find money; retweeting was an easy action.

Workedpr-launchorganic-social
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

Took a free tool to 5,000 paying users and $1M+ ARR

Search stayed free and showed the exact amount found (e.g. 'You have $793 of this airdrop'). One day he switched so every airdrop from then on was paywalled: 'you cannot claim it unless you pay.' Framed so users only paid to get even more out than they put in. Price not stated.

Workedpaywallpricing
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

Built and shipped in 4-5 hours during a month-long hackathon

Entered a month-long hackathon during the crypto boom, solving a pain he had as an Ethereum user. Spent the first two to three weeks letting ideas bounce around until he had strong conviction, waited until almost the last moment, then built start to finish in 4-5 hours.

Workedfeature-developmentvalidation
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

Open rates 'through the roof'; no numbers given

'Anti-email strategy': never sent newsletters or marketing email. The only email was 'You have matched this amount of money. You have this to go claim.' Combined with strict quality filtering so every alert meant a real, high-value airdrop.

Workedemailnotifications
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

Twitter was the main growth channel; no campaign numbers

Twitter was the lead channel because crypto people hang out there. Ran playful campaigns such as '25 Days of Christmas': every day for 25 days he publicly tagged someone and posted a screenshot of the dollar amount they had unclaimed. Onlookers felt healthy FOMO ('I wish I had that to go claim').

Workedorganic-socialfounder-brand
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

Credited for the 10,000 sign-ups in 48 hours, alongside the launch tweet

Homepage optimized for email sign-up: a sign-up call to action in the header plus a massive button above the fold, with drop shadows and borders used to pull the eye to the buttons.

Workedlanding-pageemail
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

Founder says it brought more sign-ups; no numbers

Became 'a fiend' for crypto conferences, showing up in person to tell people about Earnifi; also used them to test ideas against other people.

Workedeventsin-person
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi · B2C · crypto airdrop finder

Built a trusted reputation while competitors that listed too much lost trust

Obsessive quality filtering: a notification meant a high-dollar airdrop that could be claimed right then. Competitors included too much, which lowered quality and trust in a market full of hacking and phishing. Paired with a strict no-paid-ads rule so everyone arriving had already heard they had money to claim.

Workedpositioning-nicheproduct-activation
Starter Story · 2024-04-06

Earnifi by the numbers

MetricValueContextSaid in
users250K users
approximate
free usersStarter Story
2024-04-06
1:04
paying users5,000 users
approximate
Starter Story
2024-04-06
1:04
arrUSD 1M/year
approximate
'over a million dollars ARR' at peak, before the acquisitionStarter Story
2024-04-06
1:04
revenueUSD 100K/month
approximate
Host teaser claim 'over $100,000 a month'; not repeated in the body (guest says >$1M ARR)Starter Story
2024-04-06
0:26
arpuUSD 750per user
approximate
Average unclaimed airdrop value found per user over the site's lifetime (value to the user, not Earnifi revenue)Starter Story
2024-04-06
1:34
new customers10K sign-ups
approximate
Organic email sign-ups in the first 48 hours after the launch tweetStarter Story
2024-04-06
6:55
time to milestone4–5 hours
estimate
Time to build the first version, start to finishStarter Story
2024-04-06
5:23
time to milestone2 years
approximate
Solo growth from launch to acquisition by BanklessStarter Story
2024-04-06
10:56

Topics

Interviews