For startups, with resources often being scarce, success hinges on creativity and strategic thinking. At ActOnMagic, we were committed to writing high-quality blogs on topics like multicloud, DigitalOcean, and IBM SoftLayer.

Before BlueMix became widely popular and SoftLayer was fully integrated into it, we developed a Node.js library for SoftLayer APIs. This effort helped us establish credibility with IBM, leading to our qualification as a partner and enabling ActOnCloud’s presence on the IBM Cloud Marketplace.

For a startup with only six members, making it onto the IBM Cloud Marketplace was a significant achievement.

Our next lead magnet was a whitepaper titled “Cloud Freedom“. This comprehensive guide provided an unbiased comparison of the big five cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, Alibaba) and many tier-2 cloud providers (DigitalOcean, Exoscale, Linode, Vultr), including open-source platforms like CloudStack and OpenStack. It combined insights from our previous blogs into a single, easy-to-download format that was practical and informative.

I reached out to all our partners, customers, user base, and email list to promote the Cloud Freedom whitepaper. The response was overwhelmingly positive! Notably, it caught the attention of Mr. Sharad Sangi from NTT Netmagic, who, at the time, was looking to launch a multi-cloud product portfolio in India. Our whitepaper helped break the ice, and several key developments followed. I’ll share more about that in the future.

Thanks to our whitepaper and consistent blogging efforts, ActOnCloud was frequently compared on platforms like Capterra against competitors like RightScale, CloudHealth, Cloudyn, and others.

In summary, for an enterprise startup, I strongly believe that leveraging whitepapers and open-source contributions is a powerful way to establish thought leadership and drive meaningful conversions.