Doing it all over again
What I learned from my first and second startups
First Startup
As a solo tech founder, I worked on Howuku which was my side project back in 2019 and later turned into a full-time startup in 2020.
I didn't really know what I was doing, I was too shy to talk to customers, and REALLY BELIEVED that built and they will come.
So, for the first 24 months, I kept building, one feature after another. (I now realize it was a form of procrastination)
Feeling good about myself every time I posted the product on Indiehacker and got praised for it.
"WOW! I must be doing something remarkable", I thought! (It means nothing whether they like it or not if they are not paying for it and not your potential customers)
I got my first customer paying $100 after 12 months of building the product. My first sweet sweet internet dollar, paying for our highest-tiered plan. Took us about ANOTHER 12 months to break the $1K MRR mark.
Now, Howuku is growing on its own organically and most signups come from SEO and WOM with pretty decent conversion rates. Thanks to all the reviews and processes built up over the years.
Second Startup
About 3 months ago, I started a new startup Mida.so - a new A/B testing tool after Google Optimize announced that they are sunsetting in September.
I am really pumped to start doing it all over again because now that I am more experienced in running a startup, no longer obsessed with new shiny features. I want to prove that I've grown as an entrepreneur and that I can do it bigger, better, and faster!
1st month, we are building out the MVP and trying to get as many new users to test it out and give product feedback. Pretty rough product but it works, and reusing a lot of components from Howuku.
2nd month, we launched it in AppSumo (mainly for product feedback and actual users), it ran for a month and we made $17,000 in revenue.
3rd month, we closed our first few customers and reached $10k ARR within 30 days after the Appsumo campaign (we can't really sell subscriptions during the campaign).
The product is no way near perfect but we are making progress waaaay faster than when we started.
We have launched it with a lot of things that still require manual work such as subscriptions and even monthly usage limits.
Just launch it and make sales, you can improve the product later on.
What I learned from building my first and second startups:
Get to the market faster. Make sales. Don't add another new feature.
You don't have a business without sales and marketing, no matter how good your product
Marketing marketing marketing: Learn SEO, learn SEM, learn to #buildinpublic, whatever works for you, just be consistent!
No customers? It is not because you don't have features X, Y, Z. It is because you are not reaching out and selling it to the right person. Do cold email, cold DM, cold call, or whatever. You will get ridiculed by random strangers you pitch to, but that is totally fine you will survive.
Cheaper and more affordable than your competitors is NOT a USP.
ALL-IN-ONE is NOT a good business model for small businesses, you simply do not have the time and resources to juggle around 10 features that could be 10 standalone products. Just leave that to the big guys like Hubspot, ZOHO, etc
Selling to everyone equals selling to no one. Who is your targeted audience? Marketing people? What is their title? How big is their company size? What industry and geography? What is their day-to-day process like? Be very specific about it!
TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS - schedule a call and talk to them
High ticket size product - it is easier to build and scale a business where you only need 20 customers to hit 20K MRR than 1000 customers to hit 20K MRR.
Focus on one single USP and do it better than everyone else - inspired heavily by superhuman.