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42 Comments

I bootstrapped a landing page SaaS to $10,000 MRR. AMA!

Hello, fellow Indie Hackers! My name is Alexander Isora ๐Ÿ‘‹

I'm the founder of Unicorn Platform, the simple landing page for SaaS. Recently we celebrated reaching $10k MRR.

Unicorn Platform MRR Growth Chart

The company is fully bootstrapped. I decided not to take any VC investments because it would damage the product. I prefer making high-quality products and investing time in communicating with the users rather than pursuing guys in suits.

The team has 3 members: me (CEO + product), Elisey (UI + management + customer support), Mau (management + customer support).

You can ask me anything. I hope my experience may be relevant and helpful.

Thank you for the attention and constant support! ๐Ÿ’œ

P.S.

You can find me on Twitter and Telegram.

The project website: https://unicornplatform.com/

  1. 3

    Honestly, you deserve much more than 10k MRR. Your tool is exceptional and the best landing page builder I've ever used. Also, it's honestly priced so it is a no brainer for whoever is starting out.

    1. 1

      Thanks for the constant support from day one, Daniel ๐Ÿฅฐ

  2. 3

    Notice the Graph. For over a year, almost not much happening. Persistence is the key. Most people give up in 2-3 months. Success takes time. Congratulations!!

    1. 2

      Hey Yash.

      You are so damn right. The first year was the most difficult. I did not know if Unicorn Platform will kick start or not. I was running out of my savings really quickly because I just quit a previous startup (failed) and I had roughly $2k in my pockets.

      The only thing that helped me to go on is the strong faith in the product.
      Now I believe a successful founder must be a fanatic to some degree.

  3. 3

    Congrats on the milestone!

    1. How did you get your first(paid and not) users?
    2. What marketing strategies did you use that worked the best for the product?
    3. How did you come up with the idea/problem for the product?
    1. 4

      Hello! Thanks a lot for the warm words and for your interest! ๐Ÿ™‚

      1. How did you get your first(paid and not) users?

      The very-very first paid users were my ex. clients from the ages when I was working as a freelancer. Those are the people who know me personally. I built a reputation while working with them in the past and they already knew I can deliver cool things. When they saw an announcement from me in Twitter, they bought the product.
      I must say that building trust with a few persons is much easier than establishing a connection with thousands ๐Ÿ˜…

      1. What marketing strategies did you use that worked the best for the product?

      We have 2 main customer acquisition channels: Product Hunt and word of mouth. We use Product Hunt to launch new versions of our tool every 6 months.

      Alt text

      Each launch gives Unicorn Platform traffic and sign-ups.

      The second channel is word of mouth. People recommend us to their friends.
      We work hard to keep the product simple, joyful, and easy. This includes live chat customer support.
      We want people to have fun making pages. We do not sell websites, we sell emotions. When people get a feeling of joy and care, they start loving us and recommending us to their friends.

      We have some other sources of traffic. They are insignificant, but in total they give some results. You can discover all incoming traffic sources in our public analytics page: https://metrika.yandex.ru/stat/sources?group=day&period=week&accuracy=1&id=65850277&stateHash=617a3d6f0defa500810671ff

      I'm preparing a detailed blog posting our company blog post and tell more about AppSumo and other channels of traffic you can see on the analytics page.

      1. How did you come up with the idea/problem for the product?

      My vision of the product came while I was working in the web design industry.
      Since 2014, I made hundreds of websites, talked to dozens of people who create websites for different purposes. I learned how they look for a tool, how and when they convert, and when they churn.
      All this experience in my head turned into an idea: people need a simple and a niched tool. This is how the concept of Unicorn Platform was born ๐Ÿ™‚ I hope this does not sound too mysteriously.

      1. 2

        Thanks for the response! There are a thousand such tools like yours, but I find them not great solutions for my purpose(building a landing page fast). If I didn't have coding skills or time to build one, I'd use the Unicorn Platform. Keep doing the great work.

        1. 2

          Thanks a lot for the feedback! ๐Ÿ™‚ Such a simple thing as your kind words mean a lot to me.

          We will continue working hard to deliver a better product for you and the rest 14,666 users.

  4. 2

    How are u progressing on this?

    1. 1

      Hey Romain. We are doing good. Some big news is to be announced in 2 weeks ๐Ÿ˜‡

  5. 2

    Good luck to you Alexander. Do you have time for a featured interview? I will also signup to be an affiliate. The site looks super cool! - Venkat

    1. 1

      Hey Venkat .

      Thank you for the offer. I would love to participate in an interview. Feel free to DM me: https://twitter.com/alexanderisora

      I will also signup to be an affiliate.

      Cool!

  6. 2

    What are your goals for next year and what are your biggest challenges that will stop you from reaching them?

    1. 3

      A samurai has no goal, only a path ๐Ÿ˜

  7. 2

    Just came here to say I love your app :) Great work!

    1. 2

      That is so sweet! ๏ผˆ=ยดโˆ‡๏ฝ€=๏ผ‰
      Thank you Gopi!

      1. 1

        One feedback: Do add 2FA on priority. It is scary to use only a password to log in.

        1. 1

          2FA is on our todo list. We will implement it in 2022.

  8. 1

    This is absolutely the best tool I have seen for landing pages. For my next project I have been looking for something that would let me collect emails and have a blog for updates. When I saw this update on IH and tried it out I signed up right away. Well done!

    1. 1

      Thanks! I'm glad you like it ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. 1

    Congratulations. โœจ

    1. 2

      Hey Atul! Thank you ๐Ÿ™‚

      1. 1

        Most welcome.

  10. 1

    Thatโ€™s awesome! Iโ€™ll probably use it myself. How do you get customers? Is it mostly organic traffic or ads?

    1. 1

      Hello! Thanks for the warm words.
      I tried some ads but it gave zero results.
      I decided to stick to the "product-first" strategy. This way we continue getting new users because old users recommend us to their friends ๐Ÿ™‚

  11. 1

    Can you check your Twitter DM once? or respond on support chat...

    1. 1

      Sure Gopi. I check out DMs on weekdays. I will reply soon!

  12. 1

    Congratulations, love me some good landing pages!
    Where do you see the future of landing pages to be in 5 years from now?

    1. 2

      Hey! Great question.

      I believe in standardization and unification. Landing pages will look more and more the same.

      The same happened to many software: music, social networks, messengers. The Internet is becoming less diversified because of UX. From the perspective of UX people prefer working with familiar websites and apps. When a user knows what this and that button does, where a form is located, and what will most possibly happen next, they will more likely continue working with a website or an app.

      The main progress will happen in analytics. The analytics tools will become smarter and get the ability to learn. It will help creators to put a better copy and message.

  13. 1

    Congrats on great results!
    Do you still live in Russia? (If so, do you think about the relocation to a better and safer place? ;-)
    How many people are in your team?
    Thanks!

    1. 2

      We have 3 members in our team:

      Me (CEO + product). I do all the stuff.

      Elisey (UI + management + customer support). Elisey is a talented UI designer who was able to start delivering good UI in a few days after he started learning about UI.

      Mau (management + customer support). Mau has the ability to be extremely careful and patient. She is an emotional and friendly girl who enjoys helping others.

    2. 1

      Hello Cat! Thank you for the cheers ๐Ÿ™‚

      I'm moving to Lisbon, Portugal through their Startup visa program. Currently, I'm located in Tbilisi, Georgia.

      Russia is too tough to live ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

      1. 1

        Gotcha! I wonder, how do you find Georgia in comparison with Russia?

        1. 1

          Russia is a big country. Its cities have various vibes.

          I lived in Saint Petersburg for 10 years. It is very similar to Tbilisi at many points. People, culture, the feeling of freedom, stylish young people everywhere, cozy cafes and spaces.

          Tbilisi has a much better climate and more fresh vegetables to buy.
          But the air is really bad here. It is hard to breathe ๐Ÿ˜ž

          1. 1

            Oh! What's wrong with the air? Polluted, or too wet?
            I've been living in SPb for 10+ years too :))

            1. 1

              The air is polluted ๐Ÿ˜ถโ€๐ŸŒซ๏ธ According to the statistics, it is even worse than in Moscow.

  14. 1

    I love the product btw. Iโ€™ve been a happy user for several months. Iโ€™ve launched a new business on Unicorn platform recently - coaching SaaS & e-commerce founders.

    I offer a 60 min free call Alexander, it would be a no-strings way to see if I can be of help to you.

    https//the-poe-things.com

    1. 1

      Oh, thank you very much for your generous offer, Paul!

      I'm sorry but I have to decline it. The reason is I have already spent hundreds of hours talking to coaches, mentors, teachers, trackers, investors, entrepreneurs, C-level executives of all kinds. I have got so much advice I will not be able to follow them all in my life.

      One day I realized that this amount of information makes huge turbulence in my head. Since then, I prefer keeping my initial plan and stop finding help or advice from the outside.

      Thank you again, Paul! I appreciate this a lot ๐Ÿ’œ I really do.

  15. 1

    Congratulations @alexanderisora
    When I think about landing pages, I used to go to WebFlow but this more that than that. I liked many things about Unicorm but especially the workflow to build pages is seamless.

    1. 1

      Thank you for the kind words! ๐Ÿ’œ
      WebFlow indeed is a great tool. But sometimes you just do not need so much power.

  16. 0

    Success takes time. Congratulations!! I would love to participate in an interview. Feel free to DM me at https://bestbushcraft.com/best-budget-bushcraft-knife/.

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