Parrot QA
The easiest way to test web app features.
After some exciting growth, it's likely that April will be our first down (or flat) month! Eek!
What happened?!
At a high-level, I brought on a partner to run the revenue side of the business. He's a real partner - not just someone who will do my bidding. That means he will do things his way, and he thrives on autonomy and trust.
My way is SaaS + Services from the get go - something like a technology-enabled consulting firm, that does less consulting and more SaaS as it grows.
His way is SaaS first, maybe Services later... maybe. In other words - he is opposed to any high-touch business, and has a vision for a purely self-serve platform. So in his first month, he effectively fired the clients who require too much support.
While it hurts to see the business shrink in the short term, I'm excited about the prospect of building a truly self-serve business, and I am confident that my business partner has the drive and experience to see it to fruition.
Onward!
Marketing is working! We've doubled our MRR - two months in a row. Found some awesome friends to help on the sales sides. Too many leads for me to handle on my own!
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That's fantastic news! Which growth channels are you using?
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Also want to hear this :D
Sounds like outbound. Was it easy to find your beachhead/initial target market segment?
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We finally nailed our paid social strategy. I know it sounds cliche - but it was all about clearly defining the target audience and iterating on messaging until we found a pitch that resonated with the audience. We used CTR as a proxy for interest, because it's higher volume than conversion, so it shows signal earlier. Email me (jake at our domain) if you want more details!
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Would love to know how you get leads!
I'm launching a Heroku Add-On for Parrot. It's basically the same as our web app, except it has a single sign-on integration with Heroku (so that you can easily create and sign into projects from within the Heroku dashboard). I need some help alpha testing, so ping me if you want to be an alpha tester and I'll give you free Parrot for a year!
After almost 2 years of building, pivoting, and testing various channels, we acquired our first paying customer via Facebook ads, with a CPA of around $1k. The LTV on that customer is still unclear, but I'm cautiously optimistic we'll make that money back!
The first iteration of Parrot required using a Chrome Extension to record actions. This meant that customers had to come to our site, sign up, install a Chrome Extension, sign into it, go to their site, record doing something, come back to our site, and then set up tests on that recording. Needles to say, the funnel was way too complex. Also - our prices started at $249/mo. We pivoted downmarket by simplifying our product (replacing the Chrome Extension with functionality in our web app), and lowering our prices.
2 Comments
Since this is your first down month, you guys are clearly crushing it! Obviously all companies go through valleys in contrast with their peaks, the true measure of sustained success is what people learn in these valleys.
Great work guys!
^ this is why I love IndieHackers.