Our startup just hit 10,000 users! Here's how we DIDN'T hack our growth
Hey fellow Indie Hackers! We just hit a very cool milestone and amidst all the stories we share about hacking growth I wanted to share our story, which is in no way a tale of overnight success. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have about our process as well, I'll probably bring another post outlining our strategies soon.
I would read it, but I already hit the 3 free previews this month, and don't want to pay $5/month 😕
Perhaps you could share it as an IH article to expand your reach.
Just open an incognito tab, that usually works! I'll have to rewrite to share it here on IH but I probably will :)
Duh! Thanks, will check it out 😁
#6 was spot on. We boot strapped to $26K MRR so far and did it with the same tenacity and grit as you guys. We tell our story over at http://SaaSpnr.io Great story!
That's really nice, must have been one hell of a ride! Thanks!
So how exactly did you hit 10, 000 users, besides being patient?
I assume it's not thanks to patiently waiting for this number to tick, right? :)
God no! I'll write this in another article but here are 10 steps we went through:
1- We started with no free trial and no free plan to validate that the market would be willing to pay for our solution (my interview here on IE is from this time);
2- A few months in, we experimented raising prices 10x and seeing how it affected our client's perception of us (surprisingly, it worked);
3- All sales up to this point were manual outreach (cold calling, cold emails and referrals);
4- We then started advertising and trying to convert clients through our website;
5- About a year in, we also experimented with prices as low as U$2 a month and measured or ROI;
6- All this experimentation allowed us to find the best price for optimal conversion to revenue ratio;
7- We stopped manual outreach and focused on SEO and Adwords;
8- About 1 year ago we released a free version of our plan, expecting revenue to fall, but it didn't;
9- We were getting about 15 signups a day. We kept working on SEO, branding and built a referral system;
10- About 3 months ago we were getting 1500+ signups a month and this trend continues.
I'll be glad to discuss these ideas while the full article is not ready.
Thank you for your answer!
It is very interesting for me, as we have just built several hundreds of our users, and believe in continuous work rather than hacks.
Glad that your efforts are fruitful - keep up the good work!
I guess there is no better advice out there than "experiment, adjust, repeat" + constantly learn new things. Just because what works for one, not necessarily will work for others.
Will be interested to read the article once it comes out! :)
Hey that's awesome! I hope you guys continue to grow faster and faster. I'm really big on experimenting and measuring the results. so I'll love to share the experiments we already did. Thanks!
Here's the link for anyone who had trouble accessing the original link: https://medium.com/@thiagoko/how-we-didnt-hack-our-way-to-10-000-users-and-what-you-can-learn-from-it-e0f556806da2?source=friends_link&sk=68a1018d8756a5c389936cc054d6edc5
Just an FYI, I flagged this because it leads to a paywalled article. I can't read it and clicking was a waste of time 😕
I also updated the original link now. Thanks!
Much appreciated!
I didn't even know you could flag posts here lol. I can't copy the content here though since it has been published there. But I found out I have a special link that isn't paywalled. I will post it here for you and whoever else had trouble acessing it.