Viral loop
Normal use of the product puts it in front of people who are not users yet, such as meeting links, shared files, or invites.
Counts as evidence: The company states that product use exposes or brings in non-users.
Who ran it
Zoom · Free hosts and the invite loop · 2013 to 2016
Viral loop PrimaryThe S-1 says individuals typically start using Zoom when a colleague invites them to a meeting, and attendees who see the benefits often become paying customers.
Zoom · The pandemic surge · 2020 to 2021
Viral loop PrimaryDaily meeting participants, free and paid, went from about 10 million in December 2019 to more than 200 million in March 2020.
Atlassian · Starter licenses, Marketplace and Experts · 2009 to 2019
Viral loop SupportingTeam products spread as users invite colleagues, and the prospectus describes natural network effects that carry them across teams and departments by word of mouth.
Slack · Free for teams, spread by word of mouth · 2014 to 2015
Viral loop PrimaryAdoption starts with end users, and free users spread Slack to colleagues inside their organization. The S-1 says its marketing strategy depends on free users convincing others to use Slack and to drive the conversion to paid plans.
Slack · Shared channels, the pandemic, and the sale to Salesforce · 2019 to 2021
Viral loop PrimaryShared channels connect the workspaces of different companies, so a customer invites its vendors and partners, who then invite theirs. Paid Customers using them went from more than 32,000 in January 2020 to more than 74,000 in January 2021, and Butterfield credited Slack Connect with driving viral growth.
Figma · Browser multiplayer and the shared link · 2012 to 2016
Viral loop PrimaryA browser file is shared as a URL, so users invited collaborators into Figma, and those invites drove conversion once Figma began charging. Field says live collaboration was a launch requirement because a shared link without it was a poor experience.
Figma · FigJam, Dev Mode, Enterprise and the Adobe deal · 2021 to 2023
Viral loop SupportingThe Dev Mode launch post says a single link let designers collaborate on in-progress work, and that on paid plans more developers visit Figma than designers.
Replit · Learn to code in the browser · 2016 to 2020
Viral loop SupportingA shared repl URL let anyone run an app, comment on it, and fork and remix it, so every shared project could bring in a new user.
Dropbox · Free sync, shared folders, two-sided referral · 2008 to 2010
Viral loop PrimaryUsers share files and folders with people who are not registered, which pulls them into the product. Houston describes sharing and referral as one loop where every step of friction is worth removing.
Dropbox · Focus on work, self-serve at scale, IPO · 2015 to 2019
Viral loop PrimaryThe S-1 calls its 500 million registered users its best salespeople and says millions of individuals sign up for Dropbox at work every year.
Notion · Community, templates and a free personal plan · 2019 to 2021
Viral loop SupportingAnyone with a link could be given editing access, with a simpler signup for people arriving that way, and a Duplicate button let people copy a shared template straight into their own workspace.
Canva · Teams, classrooms and the workplace · 2020 to 2023
Viral loop PrimarySuggested Teams matched colleagues by work email, and anyone sent a design they could not open could click Request Access. The number of people collaborating on designs doubled between June and December 2020, and the co-founder credits users bringing in new users.
Asana · Free teams and the guest invite · 2008 to 2016
Viral loop PrimaryCustomers can invite guests from outside their organization into projects, which the S-1 says seeds the market with Asana users and supports viral adoption. No filing gives a share of signups that came from invites.
monday.com · Self-serve trial and payback-gated ads · 2014 to 2018
Viral loop SupportingPaying teams invite other teams, so word of mouth carries the product into new parts of the company.
Lovable · Launch, ship daily, and post it · 2024 to 2025
Viral loop SupportingApps published on the free plan carry an "Edit with Lovable" badge that only paid plans can hide, and users were asked to share builds with #BuiltWithLovable for reposts. Lovable-built sites drew half a billion visits in six months; no source measures how many signups the badge drives.
Vercel · Vercel for frontend teams: free tier, Git integration, Next.js Conf · 2020 to 2022
Viral loop SupportingEvery deployment gets a Preview URL that teams share for review; Vercel cites Airbnb using them as its unit of collaboration. This shows non-developers seeing the product, not a measured conversion loop.
OpenAI · ChatGPT goes free, then paid, then to work · 2022 to 2023
Viral loop SupportingShared links let a user send a whole conversation to anyone with the link, including through social networks. No source gives the feature's launch date or how many viewers become users.