Yesterday, Cambridge based Backupify released some incredible numbers on their 2010 growth. Numbers that when you see them, will make you say “How did they do that?” Well, we found out. But first — the numbers.
Backupify’s user base grew from 30,000 early in 2010 to over 122,000 by year end. They are responsible for the storage of over 66 terabytes of user data — that’s up from 2 terabytes on January 1, 2010. In 2010 they have backed up 136 million Tweets, 713 million emails, and 92 million pictures.
“This past year we witnessed widespread validation of our service as users increasingly embrace the importance of protecting and controlling their sensitive cloud-based data,” said Backupify CEO, Rob May. “Backupify is well-positioned to capitalize on this momentum and to continue to provide users with the most comprehensive cloud data management solutions on the market.”
I had the chance to catch with Backupify’s marketing analyst (and BostInno writer) Kristin Dziadul and VP of Marketing Charlie Ungashick to get a little insight into what has been behind their explosive growth.
Here are a few of the company’s milestones that led to the explosive growth:
- We “dropped the paywall” and offered a free option
- Initial seed funding announcement in early 2010: it seems this is the first time Backupify became mainstream in the minds of the early-adopter tech community
- Auto-tweet capability on Twitter made Twitter the most popular service on Backupify until it was overshadowed by Google Apps
- Kristin coming on board and driving the company’s social media presence helped immensely
- We can directly attribute about 10,000 users to an iPad contest + invite incentive program that we ran for a few weeks in the summer
- The announcement and launch of Google Apps led to a lot of press and resulted in many sign-ups
- Our Series A funding announcement led to an influx of press and users
- Our Facebook Fanpage back up announcement led to an influx of press and users
Here are a few other tidbits of information from Charlie Ungashick: