First Failure of #12Months12Startups
Hello indie hackers! #12Months12Startups is a challenge I decided to undertake in order to practice the principle I hear a lot "fail fast, learn fast". The challenge is to create a SAAS every month until one of them becomes profitable, I think it'd be a nice learning experience overall, even the failures count as learning. That said, here is the first failure of the year and what I've learned
Month 1, My Attempt At Joining The AI Train (https://www.practici.ca) :
I came up with the idea after discussing with a classmate how hard it is to study considering most of our classes don't offer past papers and a lot of study guides always recommend using past papers as an aid, and so Practici was born. Practici helps students convert PDFs into test questions efficiently, allowing easier studying and practice through the use of active learning. After getting only 3 upvotes on ProductHunt, only 2 runs of the trial version, 37 impressions with 0 clicks as per Google, I've decided that Practici has failed to be a profitable venture. Here's what I've learned in creating it:
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Building something you want and something a lot of other people want and are willing to pay for, are 2 different things
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B2C is seemingly harder than B2B
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Marketting matters, your product won't sell itself. I tried promoting Practici via the GetStudying subreddit and got banned a couple hours later, despite the post getting a lot of views, nobody used the product (I look at API usage to gauge if people try and generate questions). The ban deterred me from posting on other relevant subreddits such as r/college and so I went and posted a simple TikTok showing a straightforward product demo, the post got 66 views, no usage, no signups. I tweeted about the MVP, got 200+ views, not a lot of interest either, posted the semi-finished product, even less views.
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I learned about hosting and a bit about Stripe and feel more confident in using it for future projects.
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Learned about TailwindCSS and TailwindComponents since I suck at design
In conclusion, I failed the first month of my own challenge but at the end of the day, I made the decision to build something I thought would be useful and in doing so I learned a lot. I must say, it feels good to have actually executed something rather than spending all my energy thinking about doing something. If anybody else is interested in doing this challenge, starting at month 2, just post your progress here or on Twitter with the hashtag #12months12startups. Thanks for reading! All the best if you choose to undergo this challenge too
I have also undertaken some projects that didn't work out, but thanks to them, I've learned a lot. I did one with AI using the ChatGPT API and Stripe, and it helped me learn how to use them. I believe that every new project is an opportunity to learn new things :)
I love this part "feels good to have actually executed something rather than spending all my energy thinking about doing something"
It's exactly this 0 to 1 moment. You just start doing and then figure things out.
Exactly! I've been suffering from analysis paralysis so this challenge will help me bite the bullet and spend more time doing stuff
some thoughts for your project:
2 . Avoid B2C
and most the important: keep it up
Thank you for your valuable feedback and encouragement. I figured 1 month wouldn't be enough,so I'll keep working on the site and marketting while I work on the other projects
I wouldn't call it a failure. I think you shouldn't be focusing on making money at the moment, but instead focus on building an audience. Most people won't tell you this, but it's what everyone did.
👍，building an audience is also the most important section at the book of minimalist.
Great initiative. Keep it up. Consider checking Marc Lou - https://shorturl.at/gINU0
Will do! Thank you. I follow him on Twitter :D
the next one will be better
Here's a new challenge for you. Post a video on TikTok everyday for the next month and report back! This seems like the perfect idea to market on Tiktok.
Excellent post, Thanks for sharing, Although it didn't create revenue, I think you learned a ton in 1 month. I am trying to get my first AI concept MVP, Best wishes on the next one.
Thank you very much! Best wishes on your venture as well, be sure to post about it on here
Great work on your first trial, keep it up!
Two major points that you might have missed, that could have increased conversion:
Building for mobile: The website is not responsive which im sure affected your conversion rate as 90% of users (especially students in your case) use their mobile phones to surf the web.
Timing: it could be that at the time of your launch there wasn't a need for such a service, since most exams happen before the new year
Thank you for the feedback. I figured timing could be a factor so I won't be removing the domain yet, I'll do a bit more marketting.
As for the responsiveness, I could definitely work on that, my thought process was from my perspective, I don't store class notes on my phone, I store them on my laptop so I would use the site as is (desktop mode)
An inspiring work!!. Remember you gained a lot of insight and tech skills. Good luck buddy.
Thank you!
Geeez its going to be a long year for you, good luck! Also consider looking at your target market's pain points in order to emphasize how well your product can solve their pain point :)
Indeed. Thank you very much! I'll do that for sure for my next idea
Pretty cool project even if it was a failure, maybe you should focus on a different customer, instead of students (usually they go short in money and have other priorities in their spending), you should try teachers or anyone who is going to be the test maker... Sometimes you think your product is for one specific task or audience, but you can quickly change the speech, give it a spin, and sell it. I'm sure with that challenge you'll find out soon about don't fall in love with your idea and be ready to spin it and refocus it.
Good luck with your journey
Thank you so much for the feedback! I've thought about that, and I even researched competitors and found they do that as well but I'm not sure about marketting channels for teachers yet (I'll figure it out). Pivotting might be just what I need
Marketing channels for teachers/professors take the easy path... think local, I'm sure you know some of them. Talk to them about the project and test the waters. Also, pointing out the fact that companies are doing the same thing, means there is a demand for it. You can easily copy and tweak their strategies
Congrats. Consider it a success, this is a huge breaking point for you
Thank you! Will do, failing is just the start of the journey :D
It may appear as though you have failed. But you have laid the groundwork to build on. The lessons you have learned are so powerful and will undoubtedly play a huge role in your next endeavor.
Wishing you the best
I agree, the lessons learned from this are what matters most, I only truly fail if I give up and don't learn anything
Thanks for sharing. My partner and I started a B2C product this month as well (anonymous hinge profile reviews platform) with a very similar experience. Bootstrapped the product in a few days and immediately hit reddit to organically advertise (as well as tried a couple hundred dollars in paid advertising thru google, ig, reddit). We made a couple of sales but now we're feeling at a dead end.
Organic reddit traffic is hard to drive especially because of the aggressive banning and paid ads aren't doing super hot for us. Can anyone who has had a similar product experience and sat it out comment on whether its worth pursuing the long tail? It's only been a month so we're not sure if it's just too new. What worked and what didn't? When is it time to call it quits on the idea?
It's really hard to say if you're at a dead end if you've only launched for a month! Keep iterating, new sales channels, new communities to engage, sooner or later you may find the answer :)
Thank you for sharing as well. I'm still too new at this to give valuable advice but if I were in your shoes, I'd probably looking into selling since you're making some money, maybe someone would be interested in buying your product from you on MicroAcquire. You can also choose to stick it out and look for adjacent markets which would be interested in some version of your product
This is a very interesting approach! Is the goal here to learn as many things as possible or is it to build a profitable product quick?
I've read that you're more likely to build a better business if you spend more time on the problem. I'd like to know your take on this
Its a bit of both. I always wanted to experience building something fully functional and host it so others can use it, it would also be nice to get some money from doing so, no matter how small. I also think it would be good experience to put on my resume rather than some school project that I did for a grade.
I've heard something similar about focusing on the problem your business solve, I do believe that building a good business is all about identifying a problem that needs solving and people who are willing to pay for the solution, you don't have to be the first to solve the problem either, Uber wasn't the only ride sharing app to exist and Google wasn't the first search engine.
An interesting project. So do you cut the project fully loose after 30 days if you don't make it profitable or do you intend to keep any going after the month if you get some traction?
Thank you! I won't delete the domain or site but it won't be my primary focus while work on the other projects. I'll only work on it when I get the chance, and do a bit more marketting, maybe some paid ads
Awesome! keep going!
Will do! Thank you
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