Steal these tactics from Lovable
How Lovable drives usage, referrals, and community at scale
đ Hey, Iâm George Chasiotis. Welcome to GrowthWaves, your weekly dose of B2B growth insightsâfeaturing powerful case studies, emerging trends, and unconventional strategies you wonât find anywhere else.
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Thereâs a company called Lovable.
Youâve probably heard of them.
You may have used their product to âvibe codeâ or whatever the term is this week.
AI buzz aside, theyâve been doing some interesting work on the growth side.
Iâll share three tactics with you.
Use them if they fit your situation and needs.
Ignore them if they donât.
Tactic #1: The AI Showdown
On June 13th, Lovable announced a weekend project called âThe AI Showdown.â
Essentially, Lovable:
Partnered up with leading foundation models from companies like Anthropic
Offered free access to their users and the ability to switch between different models
Launched two competitions to spark interest in the event and prompt people (no pun intended) to build with Lovable
Here are the results:
No need to do the math.
Across all three models, we have:
4,933,755 prompts
239,826 projects created
5,118 projects submitted
Not bad for a weekend, right?
The question, of course, isnât whether these numbers are good or not.
Theyâre obviously massive.
The question is, what are the takeaways from this initiative?
Key takeaways
Here we go:
Lovable builds authority by being associated with some of the best foundation models
They offer non-users free access to the product to experience value and stick with it
They cultivate a sense of community and associate their brand with rewarding builders
They establish themselves as the go-to tool for vibe coding and building no-code applications
They generate buzz and stay relevant in a very competitive and already crowded category
Ultimately, the incentive becomes building cool stuff, not just winning a cash prize.
That puts the product at the forefront of this initiative, instead of giving away big prizes and alienating the productâs value.
Does this apply to your product?
Most likely no. At least not in this format.
But there are insights you can draw from this and use in your company.
You may not have the Lovable brand or AI buzz to give you that initial push, but as long as you have a great product, there are many things you can do.
Tactic #2: Spread the love
Referral programs arenât new.
SaaS companies like Dropbox, fintech ones like Monzo, and marketplaces like Airbnb have used referrals to acquire customers and drive growth.
Lovable is using referrals, too, but with a slight twist.
Once you click the gift icon at the top of the page inside your Lovable account, you get to see this window:
To add some context:
Lovable uses a credit-based pricing system (think tokens, not seats)
Credits = internal currency users want to earn and spend
Different tasks consume different amounts of credits
Referrals use credits as the core incentive
Spending credits = Doing work
Doing work = Getting value
Which means that the incentive is aligned with what the user wants.
Lovable encourages users to refer other users, and users then consume these credits to build stuff.
Of course, no incentive works if the product sucks.
But if itâs good?
Then the only incentive you need to offer people is your internal currency.
Because it perfectly aligns with what matters to both the user and the company.
Again, this tactic may not apply to all SaaS companies out there.
But for the ones that can implement it, the takeaway is clear:
Incentivize users with the metric that best describes the value people get from your product.
Tactic #3: Launched
Leaderboards arenât new either.
Especially leaderboards for newly launched products.
Product Hunt paved the way for this category, using user upvotes and other factors such as comments to determine rankings.
Lovable has a page on their website called âLaunched.â
In case you find trouble reading it, the text reads:
âTop 5 submissions by Monday every week wins 100 credits â added every Mondayâ
So, basically, these are projects created by Lovable users.
Other users then upvote these projects, which serves as the primary ranking factor.
Authorâs Note: I donât have any inside knowledge on how the ranking system works and havenât contacted Lovable regarding it. Iâm just assuming that this is how the projects are ranked.
Like with the referral program we saw earlier, projects that win earn Lovableâs internal currency, credits.
This incentivizes users to build great projects with Lovable, assuming the upvoting and ranking systems remain fair and transparent.
Again, Lovable isnât really innovating with that tactic, and it may not apply to all companies.
But, the product is super strong, and this tactic creates a sense of community among its users and audience.
I think that leaderboards aside, there are several other side-benefits that may not be as visible right now, from this play:
Lovable creates a UGC growth loop with users who create projects that help other users get specific jobs done, similar to what companies like Stack Overflow have done with content;
Lovable creates a platform for launching, and moving forward, this may become a competitor to websites like Product Hunt for launching new projects, products, or features;
If they execute properly, Lovable can turn this into a marketplace for agents, and products built with little-to-no code on the basis of AI.
Letâs wrap this up with some final thoughts.
Final thoughts
You probably donât have Lovableâs product, revenue, or momentum.
Thatâs all understandable.
But I think there are lessons to be learned from this note.
Again, not all three tactics may be relevant to you and your company.
But even if we forget about the tactics for a minute, there are important insights here.
For example, using internal currency to reward power users or product advocates always benefits the product.
Ultimately, each company needs to uncover the best incentives and use them to its advantage.