I've built a SaaS that got ~100 free trials in 2 weeks and converted 0 to a paid plan.
Hello fellow builders,
last month I wanted to build something simple to improve my marketing skills, and it went way better than I thought, the only problem is that the product hasn't converted any users at all, even tho 90 people signed up for the free trial.
Product Overview
The app is called Sheetsy (https://www.sheetsy.ai), and it's an AI that converts natural English language to Excel/Google Sheets formulas (kinda like Github Copilot but for Excel).
Marketing Strategy
This is where I initially thought the product would go well, as soon as I had a basic MVP ready I did a Reddit post on the official r/Excel subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/uxi9tr/i_have_created_an_ai_that_let_you_generate_excel/).
This post would later get 300 upvotes and reach 75k views.
This was a huge success for me, even tho I realized from the comments of the post that my product wasn't really ready yet, but hey I've got a lot of trial users! (around 70 after a week)
Current Status
Fast forward 2 weeks later and no one signed up for a plan, even tho the plan costs 2,50$ per month!
And I also sent emails to each customer when their trial ended prompting them to sign up for a paid plan.
I know that there are a lot of features missing, but not even a single conversion makes me think there's something wrong with the product itself.
From studying the logs I think the main culprits are:
- AI doesn't provide the best results
- Users don't know how to properly ask a question to the AI
Final Thoughts
That's everything there is to Sheetsy's story, even tho I've launched two weeks ago I have a sense that is not worth continuing the product but would love to hear you guys' opinion on the topic.
Is it worth continuing or do I just move on?
I can't tell you why you may not be getting conventions but I want to say DON'T GIVE UP!
Failure is part of the process. All startups have times like this. You are in a great position to experiment, learn adapt and grow.
The problem may be a language thing, a UX issue or perhaps it is just not quite hitting the need.
Here is what I would do next:
Phil
oxogen.io - a community of like-minded founders and entrepreneurs where you are rewarded for being part of the tribe.
That's a great start! Have you talked to anyone who tried it?