Focusing on Localized SEO and Earning $10K MRR

Maciej is a different type of saasstrapper compared to our previous interviewees. While he is an IT guy, he started his company with no prior knowledge of SaaS businesses and eventually hired 10 people. He lost all the savings he had accumulated from real estate and cafe experiences.

After two years, they earned nothing, and he decided to build the system from scratch. He rolled up his sleeves and worked on coding the product. The rest is below. :)

In this interview, you will witness the importance of resilience and the power of testing different strategies, such as publishing content in various languages rather than focusing solely on English.

Hope you enjoy.
For the whole interview: saastrappers.beehiiv.com

Can you give us some information about your background?

I used to be a programmer and I'm still a programmer. I'm programming a lot. I've worked in various businesses and roles, creating a unique mix. The core is still technical, focusing on programming and other IT aspects like DevOps and mobile applications.

In the past few years, I've also learned how to grow a SaaS business, specifically Calendesk. In my previous experiences, I've been involved in a coffee shop, real estate, and other ventures. While I enjoyed them, I was searching for something more location-independent, easily scalable, and automatable.

Why did you decide to build your own SaaS company?

I prefer not to depend on location, as I've tried it in the past and found it not to align with my preferences. A SaaS business provides everything I want and need, making me genuinely happy and fulfilled. That's why I enjoy running my own software company.

Nice, Matias. I'm wondering, how did you decide to build Calendesk? Your previous experiences, okay, you're an IT guy, but how did you find the idea? Is it something you faced or heard from friends? How did that process be?
It's funny because I didn't do any validation or anything like this. Whatever I say now is something I wouldn't start again, but I can share what I did in the past.

I was doing another business related to real estate, flipping apartments, completely unrelated to IT. Despite bringing in money, I found it boring. While searching for ideas in the IT field, I had a conversation with my hairdresser, who complained about the software he used. He expressed dissatisfaction with its features and was looking for alternatives. That's when I thought, "This isn't really difficult – just a booking appointment scheduler with a simple website and notifications." It sounded manageable.

With some initial funds, I hired programmers to build it. We started with a team of around 10 people, including backend and frontend programmers, mobile app developers for Android and iOS, a UX expert, an SEO and marketing specialist, my co-founder, and myself. This marked the beginning of Calendesk.

How did you find those guys, and in terms of the investment, did you have enough savings or did you get some credits, other stuff?

I had savings from other businesses at the time. I collected around 300.000 or 400,000 Euros or dollars, quite a lot for a beginning. I felt comfortable, thinking I had enough savings to hire people and start a project. However, there was no clear plan, and I quickly burned through the money. Invoices were coming in every month, but the project wasn't progressing. I realized it wasn't working, and with the arrival of COVID, I decided to move to another place and put a pause on the project.

During this time, I was burning my savings and had to let go of the team I initially hired due to my lack of knowledge and mistakes. I decided to finish the project myself. For another year and a half, I developed everything on my own, taking part in the backend, frontend, and mobile app development. Despite not having worked on Android apps before, I learned by reading documentation and completing it. As a programmer, jumping into different technologies is relatively easy.

How long does it take to have your first sale?

First of all, I had a co-founder, but he wasn't doing much at the beginning. Not really much because he was responsible for support. He's also a smaller co-founder, so the amount of shares he has is not really a lot. We were waiting for the time when the product would be ready to sell, and that took us almost two years—way too much time, with many mistakes and unnecessary features.

Why would we need mobile apps at the beginning? Why would we need all these features we planned without simple validation? It was super crazy. I learned a lot about how not to run a SaaS business. After two years, the product was ready. We launched the first beta version and invited some customers.

My co-founder at the time was searching for customers who could use the product at the beginning. But then they came, and they said, "Well, it's not really what we want." I was like, "What, two years, and this is not what you want, really?" So then I learned that you shouldn't build features until you talk to your customers.

What type of people do you target at that time?

Yeah, we targeted beauty, like hairdressers and beauticians. Aria was our first target, but we realized they weren't the right fit for us. They already had their own applications on the market. We needed to pivot, change our approach, and shift our target customers. After some time, we found that other types of businesses might need our solution more.

We started working with lawyers, psychotherapists, tutors, and many others who didn't have a specific tool for them. Currently, we mostly work with lawyers and psychotherapists, but this decision came after exploring different business types. We tried many variations before settling on the target we want to work with.

What did you do in terms of marketing to reach 10K MRR in 2 years?

To achieve our MRR growth in two years, we prioritized SEO as a fundamental strategy. A consistent influx of customers through organic search has become a vital aspect of our daily operations. Investing in SEO yielded significant value, surpassing the impact of paid channels like Google Ads or Bing. Initially, Google Ads were crucial for visibility, requiring us to reinvest every earning back into content, SEO, and paid campaigns.

To elaborate on our strategy further, Google Ads played a pivotal role in our early visibility efforts. In the initial stages, when we lacked organic visibility, Google Ads served as a valuable tool to reach potential customers. As the company grew, we gradually shifted focus from heavily relying on paid channels to investing more in SEO and content. This transition allowed us to establish a robust organic presence, reducing dependency on paid advertising over time. Striking a balance between paid and organic strategies has been crucial in sustaining our growth and achieving a profitable business model.

Building a SaaS business is challenging and demands substantial time, money, and perseverance. While the initial phase may not bring substantial profits, persistence is key. Our company now operates at a profit, allowing for sustainable growth.

Notably, focusing on SEO in both our native language (Polish) and English proved beneficial. In countries like Poland, where the majority prefer their native language, investing in SEO in Polish enhanced our visibility and customer base. And Poland is not a small country as 36-37 millions of people live there.

Contrary to the challenging English market, targeting the native language provided a competitive advantage, as markets like Poland offer substantial business opportunities. This strategy recognizes the dynamics of language preference and emphasizes seizing opportunities in less saturated markets for effective visibility and growth.

For the whole interview: saastrappers.beehiiv.com