Thanks for sharing Ashley. This has been my experience too.
I think for most of us, growth doesn't arrive all at once from a vital partnership or by dropping some viral content. Those are the outliers.
Growth is the result of hard work on a number of areas, and you can expect gradual improvement over time. I do think it gets easier with time though as your business gains more and more momentum.
A good talk on this topic is "the long slow SAAS ramp of death":
This resonates with me too. Another big thought-leader in SaaS is Jason Lemkin. He says most SaaS take 24 months to show real traction. That can sometimes seem like a long road.
Even after that, there isn't a magical moment when "you've arrived". At each stage there are new challenges and problems to face.
What keeps me encouraged and going is asking am I better today than I was yesterday? Is my business better than it was yesterday?
It's so much better to focus on your personal development, the development of your customers and who you serve, and the development of your business than worry about external measures of success.
1
Even after that, there isn't a magical moment when "you've arrived". At each stage there are new challenges and problems to face.
Yes, this! This is why I'm actively trying to enjoy each part of my journey. The build-up to launch and the unknown. Post-launch and scrambling to get customers, but not being hugely profitable. Finally seeing a bit of traction—enough that you see the potential—and figuring out how to scale it. It's all fun! But scary.
1
That's awesome. Glad you are developing that mindset. I'm developing it too. Too scary is bad. But a little scary I think is healthy and good!
Best wishes to you and your journey. Keep us posted.
2
"Astronomical traction wasn’t a reality for me, but starting small and growing slowly has been. Sharing these stories is important so we can see how different the journey looks for everyone. The vast majority of us won’t experience the overnight success—and that’s OK!"
I needed to hear these words so badly, after a recent poor launch of a product. Thanks @ashleybaxter ! Love the honest and open-hearted sharing of your experience. And useful tips too - I had not tried encouraging referrals via existing users. What other sales/marketing tactics had you tried that worked well?
1
Glad it resonated, Jason. Sorry to hear you didn't have a viral, explosive launch, but we can all relate!
Honestly, referrals has been huge as I'm still not investing money into marketing. All money is reinvested into product. Twitter has also been great for sign-ups (be where your target market hang out. Mine is active on Twitter). With the Twitter thing, though, that's been down to actively hanging out there for the past 7 years!
This stuff is really hard, but if you can get 10 customers you can get 20 and so on.
1
Yes getting on PH/DN isn't the be all end all, especially since my customers are not usually from there. Getting to 10 customers first sounds really encouraging. Will aim for that first. Thanks!
2
Nice and honest writeup, Ashley. Awesome! These are things people need to read more about. Too often we get caught up in overnight success-stories.
3
Thanks, I'm a big supporter of being transparent with this stuff.
1
This was an excellent post. I've often wandered how people get the first x customers, and spelling this out tranche by tranche is enormously helpful. Keep us updated on your progress!
1
Thanks, Kat. I will!
1
This is definitely one of the best written pieces I've seen on Indie Hackers. Hope you're creating a lot of written content. And great job on cracking the insurance industry :)
1
Thanks, Alex. I'm trying!
1
Check your email - I sent you one a while back and guess you missed it :)
1
Well done! Great idea and execution. P.S. Who designed your site... it is lovely.
Glad to see your story, Ashley. As a new founder with a small growth in users, I needed to read this. Keep it up!
1
Thanks for the kind words, Jess. Good luck on your journey!
1
I remember seeing this when it first launched glad to see it's still thriving :)
1
Thanks for your kind words, Chris!
1
Exciting! Congrats on the success so far and kudos on the beautiful landing page :)
I'm giving a talk this week on the different challenges a founder faces while growing from customer #1 to customer #100...
Seeing as you relatively recently went through this for the first time yourself, can you remember any important mistakes you made/questions you wish you could have asked on the journey?
Thanks!
4
Thanks, Louis.
Let's see. There were a lot of challenges I faced.
Getting people to trust me. Remember, I'm in insurance. I'm up against companies that are 100+ years old and have established trust / are household names.
Selling something that isn't as evolved as my competitors (even at this stage I'm still asking people to buy into what With Jack can become, not what it currently is).
Knowing at what point my project is validated. Is it 20 paying customers? 50? 100?
Figuring out where to invest my money during the early days. Is it marketing or is it product? (I guess this is a challenge irrespective of how many customers you have, but at the early stages money is limited).
Handling most of the business myself. I outsource design and development, but managing the first few hundred customers comes down to me. Striking the balance between serving existing customers and onboarding new ones, plus moving my marketing, product etc forward is difficult.
I will add more if I think of them!
1
Awesome, all great points and I'll make sure to try and include them. Thanks a lot and best of luck!
1
Great feedback thanks! I like the "no bullshit I'm not (yet) a bilionaire" approach :)
1
Thanks. As much as I love reading success stories, sometimes it's more useful hearing from someone who's in the trenches trying to figure things out.
Thanks for sharing Ashley. This has been my experience too.
I think for most of us, growth doesn't arrive all at once from a vital partnership or by dropping some viral content. Those are the outliers.
Growth is the result of hard work on a number of areas, and you can expect gradual improvement over time. I do think it gets easier with time though as your business gains more and more momentum.
A good talk on this topic is "the long slow SAAS ramp of death":
http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-contact-how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/
Going to watch this now :-) Thanks for sharing.
This resonates with me too. Another big thought-leader in SaaS is Jason Lemkin. He says most SaaS take 24 months to show real traction. That can sometimes seem like a long road.
Even after that, there isn't a magical moment when "you've arrived". At each stage there are new challenges and problems to face.
What keeps me encouraged and going is asking am I better today than I was yesterday? Is my business better than it was yesterday?
It's so much better to focus on your personal development, the development of your customers and who you serve, and the development of your business than worry about external measures of success.
Yes, this! This is why I'm actively trying to enjoy each part of my journey. The build-up to launch and the unknown. Post-launch and scrambling to get customers, but not being hugely profitable. Finally seeing a bit of traction—enough that you see the potential—and figuring out how to scale it. It's all fun! But scary.
That's awesome. Glad you are developing that mindset. I'm developing it too. Too scary is bad. But a little scary I think is healthy and good!
Best wishes to you and your journey. Keep us posted.
"Astronomical traction wasn’t a reality for me, but starting small and growing slowly has been. Sharing these stories is important so we can see how different the journey looks for everyone. The vast majority of us won’t experience the overnight success—and that’s OK!"
I needed to hear these words so badly, after a recent poor launch of a product. Thanks @ashleybaxter ! Love the honest and open-hearted sharing of your experience. And useful tips too - I had not tried encouraging referrals via existing users. What other sales/marketing tactics had you tried that worked well?
Glad it resonated, Jason. Sorry to hear you didn't have a viral, explosive launch, but we can all relate!
Honestly, referrals has been huge as I'm still not investing money into marketing. All money is reinvested into product. Twitter has also been great for sign-ups (be where your target market hang out. Mine is active on Twitter). With the Twitter thing, though, that's been down to actively hanging out there for the past 7 years!
Building tools like https://whatinsurance.withjack.co.uk/ and https://checkup.withjack.co.uk/ have driven traffic. Getting onto ProductHunt and Designer News, although you shouldn't base an entire launch around doing well on these kinds of sites.
This stuff is really hard, but if you can get 10 customers you can get 20 and so on.
Yes getting on PH/DN isn't the be all end all, especially since my customers are not usually from there. Getting to 10 customers first sounds really encouraging. Will aim for that first. Thanks!
Nice and honest writeup, Ashley. Awesome! These are things people need to read more about. Too often we get caught up in overnight success-stories.
Thanks, I'm a big supporter of being transparent with this stuff.
This was an excellent post. I've often wandered how people get the first x customers, and spelling this out tranche by tranche is enormously helpful. Keep us updated on your progress!
Thanks, Kat. I will!
This is definitely one of the best written pieces I've seen on Indie Hackers. Hope you're creating a lot of written content. And great job on cracking the insurance industry :)
Thanks, Alex. I'm trying!
Check your email - I sent you one a while back and guess you missed it :)
Well done! Great idea and execution. P.S. Who designed your site... it is lovely.
Thanks! That would be Simple as Milk.
@ashleybaxter I really enjoyed your podcast on this too! Thanks for sharing your lessons so openly. 🙌
No BS over here, Justin!
Glad to see your story, Ashley. As a new founder with a small growth in users, I needed to read this. Keep it up!
Thanks for the kind words, Jess. Good luck on your journey!
I remember seeing this when it first launched glad to see it's still thriving :)
Thanks for your kind words, Chris!
Exciting! Congrats on the success so far and kudos on the beautiful landing page :)
I'm giving a talk this week on the different challenges a founder faces while growing from customer #1 to customer #100...
Seeing as you relatively recently went through this for the first time yourself, can you remember any important mistakes you made/questions you wish you could have asked on the journey?
Thanks!
Thanks, Louis.
Let's see. There were a lot of challenges I faced.
Getting people to trust me. Remember, I'm in insurance. I'm up against companies that are 100+ years old and have established trust / are household names.
Selling something that isn't as evolved as my competitors (even at this stage I'm still asking people to buy into what With Jack can become, not what it currently is).
Knowing at what point my project is validated. Is it 20 paying customers? 50? 100?
Figuring out where to invest my money during the early days. Is it marketing or is it product? (I guess this is a challenge irrespective of how many customers you have, but at the early stages money is limited).
Handling most of the business myself. I outsource design and development, but managing the first few hundred customers comes down to me. Striking the balance between serving existing customers and onboarding new ones, plus moving my marketing, product etc forward is difficult.
I will add more if I think of them!
Awesome, all great points and I'll make sure to try and include them. Thanks a lot and best of luck!
Great feedback thanks! I like the "no bullshit I'm not (yet) a bilionaire" approach :)
Thanks. As much as I love reading success stories, sometimes it's more useful hearing from someone who's in the trenches trying to figure things out.