Ask HN: What's next for scaling B2B without paid ads?

I just watched a video about a 17-year-old pulling in $1M a month with his B2C product. Took him only six months to get there.

His secret sauce was influencer marketing. Honestly, it’s wild how creatively he’s using the channel—and how openly he shares what’s working for them.

Toward the end he mentioned they’re spending $7K a day on paid ads now.

It got me thinking. I’m in the B2B space, and while I can build anything myself (code, product, you name it), influencer marketing doesn’t really fit. So far, I’ve been relying on my product to promote itself, and it’s working. Steady flow of users.

But now I’m wondering: what’s the next step? Is paid ads the only option to scale, or are there other B2B channels worth trying?

Would love to hear if anyone’s cracked this at scale.