Serving entrepreneurs and small businesses

Up: § 2023 Shareholder Letter Index

Buffer was founded on a love for serving entrepreneurs and small businesses. I counted myself in that category when I started the company, and we got our initial growth through a freemium model and great content marketing. With a very low barrier to trying the product, an approach of giving away a lot of value, and leading with our value of transparency, we’ve built a strong brand.

In the last few years, we have doubled down on that passion for creators, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. A large part of what drove our incredible 2023 results in new user signups, was that at the end of 2022 we made our primary flow for new users go straight into the free plan. We believe that Buffer can be the best product in our space for these folks, who typically have low budgets and have very little time as they’re wearing multiple hats. It can often be seen as an unattractive segment due to these reasons, but for us, this segment is about dreams and possibility, and we love being the product that helps folks go from zero to one and beyond.

We have a team who love to serve small businesses. Many people join Buffer because they want to be at a truly product-led, customer-focused company. It's a totally different game, our volume is significant, and we have different tools we can work with.