Hi fellow IndieHackers,
This is my first post on here, so bear with me.
Together with a friend/ colleague of mine we are building a data-solution in the insurance business. In short, we are providing dashboards and insights for them to use.
Following the lean startup principles, we started validating our idea by talking to potential customers. After talking to these customers, we were able to land a ‘proof of concept’-project at one of those customers. We were able to use their data and providen them with tons of insights. We did this by using EXCEL (seems very basic, right?). The customer provided us with a datadump and we used different kinds of calculations in order to provide them with dashboards and insights. This allowed us to get to know the data and to make a first (basic) MVP, without trying to build a complex product already.
As of now, we want to land two or three more pilot-projects before actually productizing our excel.
So I want your help on this part. What would be the next step in productizing our basic excel-MVP? Should we hire a developper to code our calculations in some kind of program? Or are there some no-code solutions out there where we can build and productize our product relatively easy? Or do you guys (and girls) see any other options?
Thanks!
PowerBI will be your friend here. You can visualize spreadsheets in unique ways. You can also embed it, and hide it behind a login page using something like WordPress.
I would start investing in a dev after your 3rd client. You will want to start building your moat as soon as possible. It’s always a balancing act, but as soon as you validate your product you can expect competitors to pop up.
This isn’t a bad thing, competitors actually help you educate the market. However, you need to make sure your product remains on top.
Don't spend money on a developer....yet.
I would
Learn more what exactly customers need to get the most value out of your work, then maybe start thinking about how you can automate things. Premature optimization has been the death of many startups.
Since I don't know what data you are actually working with, "anonymize" means: the idea is to have a sample product output that can be shown or even send to potential clients, without revealing /disclosing any real customer data.
I see, thanks.
I don't get what anonymize your excel means.
But agreed on being too soon to code/build stuff. I'd suggest to do it manually until you can't or it costs more.