First paying users!
Well, many months of slowly improving the app, using it between my friends, and I just got an email out of the blue!
Users are limited to 25 uploads, then prompts them to upgrade. Of course, the in app subscriptions are not yet built, and so the app simply asks them to send me an email, so I can bump it manually.
A fellow who uses the app to send audio between his band mates reached out to my support email, dropped his phone number and asked if he could pay to upgrade his account.
We had a lovely phone call and he was surprised to receive direct phone support so quickly! I guess my landing page gives people the impression that I'm already wildly successful...
I was more than happy to send a PayPal invoice for $75 and manually upgrade the accounts of for him and several friends.
Feels very good to see a little money coming back in, and most importantly, it's a great morale booster.
I'm already starting to build out the new features requested by these early adopters.
Super congrats 🎉
The early adopters deserve more than they are given. Care for them and listen to their requests, so they can be happy using it. I still remember the first payment. More than satisfactory!🥺
I am curious: how do you plan to create the billing system for your customers? Are you going to use PayPal? Or going for the more standard Stripe route?
If stripe is your choice I’d love to help you with PriceWell, if interested of course.
I'm using paypal for users now, very manual process until I get in app working. For in app subscriptions, you have to use iOS/Android native in app purchasing tools. I'm using IAPHub at the moment for this. Another great bootstrapped startup: https://www.iaphub.com/
Got it! Haven’t heard of the app.
So you’re rolling out in-app subscriptions?
How’s that going to work?
Any strategy on that end?
Your app Pricewell looks great, but if it's web only, you're not going to be able to capture business from anyone using an app. As it stands, mobile platforms are essentially requiring you to handle payments through their in app purchases. See: Fortnite iOS controversy etc
Eh, just building it and rolling it out with an app update. All the pro features are Cloud based, so syncing in app purchases to database entries is slightly annoying, but it's working fine. IAPHub kind of makes this easier by taking the webhook endpoints from each app store, receiving them and then sending you a "cross platform" webhook, essentially allowing you to only support one data format, which definitely saves some time. (at the cost of a $29/month subscription)
That’s really fair and saves ton of time. I think having your billing clear and solved encourages customers to onboard, increases confidence in the product and lowers churn.
Happy that you found a solution to help you navigate through pricing.
Regarding early adopters feature requests, I totally get what you mean. Luckily they’re requesting the same features that I’ve already been prioritizing as next steps :)
As for the months of building, it’s actually been several years, starting with rudimentary web apps and finally leading to the current cross platform mobile system. This project was born from personal dissatisfaction with the current software landscape, and slowly, between professional work as time allowed, I just kept building on my own leisurely schedule. I continue to add features as I need them for my own personal use and I try to respond to feature requests for the small number of enthusiastic users.
It’s tough to build such an involved app as a solo bootstrapped developer, but I apply the same rigor and project management as I would to paid work, but I don’t hold myself to any specific deadlines. As this project gains traction, I look forward to slowly rolling off paid contract work, and filling more and more of my schedule with Audiopile work as revenue allows.
This month I’ve just engaged a friend to help with marketing/ad spend, and I’m finally ready for an influx of new users, so the next few months should be a lot more involved!
First of all, congrats on the first user. That's encouraging news, and a feeling you won't forget.
I'm curious to know more about these months of building, though. What did you focus on? How was your time divided during these months, and how long has it taken you to build and launch the project?
One thing to keep in mind is that early adopters have great feedback, but if you listen to every one you're going to have a lot of work to do. Don't be afraid to exercise your executive judgement and go with your gut about what you want to build, since it'll take time too. Cheer and keep pushing.
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.