Olivia Deramus Bootstrapped Her Way to 100k App Downloads

Meet Olivia Deramus, the bootstrapping baddie behind Communia, an app for women and marginalized genders to connect on taboo topics like money, sex and mental health, in a way that doesn't happen on Instagram and Twitter.

Communia now has over 100,000 downloads and over 20,000 daily users.

Olivia experienced sexual assault at university. It changed the trajectory of her life and was the inspiration behind Communia. Through her legal battles, she felt silenced and unsupported, and wanted a a more supportive online space.

So, she took money she was granted through a legal fund and built Communia.

Olivia didn't have the skills to build an app herself, so her first step was to build community on Instagram and email, rooted in Communia's mission.

The community snowballed, so Olivia whitelabelled a platform, essential 'renting' existing social media tech and adding Communia's branding and community guidelines, and inviting the community she had built on Instagram and email. She was able to launch on a small budget and prove out her idea.

After about 30,000 downloads and seeing strong engagement on the whitelabelled app, Olivia felt ready to build her own social media app from scratch. Communia was quoted $60,000-$80,000 for the first build, and Olivia says tech founders should be ready to go over budget by 10% or more for developer fees.

Since launching, Communia has slowly made changes to the app, and recently added some paid features.

Olivia was initially nervous to monetize the app, but says the response has been strong. Conversion rates are rising, and the cost of ads is declining as she learns more about her users.

“You don't have to have everything figured out. I think we see a lot of overnight successes, especially in the tech space. And that's not true. You can absolutely take your time. We've taken our time and I think we've benefited because we have been really scrappy. We have had to be thoughtful about our choices due to budget, but it's actually allowed us to make less mistakes.”

Olivia has prioritized paid ads instead of influencers to acquire new customers—and it’s working.

“We're trying to be a friendly brand for every woman. If we had relied on influencers right out of the gate, the influencers we would've chosen would've sent a message about the kind of person that we were targeting.”

By staying true to their brand mission, Communia attracted aligned partners, from private investors to developers, that not only help the business grow, but understand that what Olivia is building goes way beyond the bottom line.

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