#119 The Persona That Grew AppSumo To 84M

More of a listener? 🎧 I recorded a podcast episode about this. ​You can listen to it here.

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Back in April, I attended a retreat hosted by my coach Anna, and she brought in one of her mentors to speak. His name is Ayman Al-Abdullah, and he is the former CEO of AppSumo.

Ayman grew AppSumo from $3 million to $84 million in revenue in just six years. Wild, right?

But what really blew my mind was when he shared the number one thing they focused on to make that kind of growth happen.

It wasn’t paid ads, fancy funnels, or an org chart... it was persona development. In that moment I felt more validated in our processes at Affinity than ever before 😂

Ayman told a story I haven’t stopped thinking about.

Let’s get into it –

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A Persona isn’t just an imaginary avatar with a clever name.

It’s an artifact of research. A representation of real people. It’s a tool to help you build with your audience instead of just marketing at them.

Ayman told us they had a huge list of customer Personas at AppSumo. But there was one they called Marketing Agency Matt — and even though it wasn’t their biggest persona, it was their best persona.

These customers were active, saw real results, and they referred tons of other amazing customers.

So the AppSumo team made a bold move. They pivoted their entire business to serve this ONE persona more deeply ... and that’s when the hockey stick growth kicked in.

When they made Matt their primary Persona, all the other customer groups still grew. But Matt’s group grew exponentially because they focused, refined, and served them better than anyone else.

Ayman shared that they created a slack channel in the company that they invited 10+ Marketing Agency Matt's to. They connected with these customers and collaborated with them to prioritize features, improve the product, and drive the business forward.

This is a prime example of community-driven business, friends!!

Here's Ayman’s advice:

“Get on first-name, first-text basis with your buyers.”

I used to think “primary persona” meant the majority of your audience.

But now I know your "primary persona" is the one worth building around.

• The one you’d clone if you could

• The one who actually uses what you build

• The one who shares, refers, and co-creates with you

We’re doing this right now with a client. We invited a group of program alumni into a private Slack channel and named them “Business Advisors.” We run product ideas by them. We gut check offers. We ask what’s working. They’re in the room with us, shaping the future of the company.

Just like AppSumo did.

Your best Persona isn’t always the biggest. It’s the one who brings the most life to your business.

Can you imagine being able to clone all your best customers and how that could impact your business??? 🤯

Your Next Steps:

If you don’t know who your best customer is yet, here’s what to do:

(1) Identify your top 5 favorite clients (or ideal clients) – the ones you’d gladly build a business around

(2) Invite them to a 20-minute call.

No pitching! Ask things like:

• What brought them to you?

• What were they struggling with?

• What milestones mattered most?

• What feels hard or confusing right now?

(3) Look for patterns. That’s the foundation of your Persona.

And once you’ve got it, use it to shape everything: Your copy, programs, pricing, events, and your entire customer journey

That’s how you stop building for everyone, and start scaling with intention.

Let me know if you try this. Or if you want our help, this is exactly what we do in our ​Transformative Product Sprint​ – Persona development, customer journey mapping, and product strategy that’s rooted in research. Just reply and I’ll send you the details.

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