I've finished my MVP. Now what?
I've always been pretty lazy. Some months ago, I was working on a pretty boring report that consisted mainly of summarizing articles. As a good hacker, I realized that I could automate it. So I made a very simple script using GPT-3 to summarize texts. It worked well. Actually, very well! So I thought others might benefit from that too. That's when I started creating a Chrome Extension to summarize texts using GPT-3.
After some weeks of coding, creating the API, developing a semi-good-looking extension, and having infinite issues with the Stripe API, I'm proud to have a working MVP!
But now comes the scary part. Launching it to the world and waiting for feedback? I don't even know where to start! I guess my product would be very useful for students, people that write reports... Even anyone that would like to know if a long email is worth reading beforehand. But I'm not even sure how to get to those segments.
Any ideas are appreciated! And if you wanna check out the extension, feedback is all I need right now! https://getbriefly.co
I really like finding subreddits where the target audience would be. Also project-related subreddits like /r/sideprojects.
Thanks, you're right! Also thinking of making a small investment in Instagram/Facebook ads just for A/B testing.
I think like most people here, I've also had a similar thought. Well done on actually building it. In terms of the next steps, Have you spoken to your users yet? From your post, it doesn't sound like it. It's quite easy to make assumptions and I am guilty of the same but I have learned talking to your users as early as possible has its advantages and through various stages of your app, you can get feedback.
Try talking to students and see what they would need.
Also, This is a great link I been working through for my own startup - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-biggest-consumer-apps-got
Thanks, amazing article! I still didn't speak to anyone, this is my first place launching it! 😊 I got 4 registered users, so I guess I should email them and ask them what they think!
Long story short since I'm in a rush: I recently launched a chrome extension that writes emails with AI once you give a simple summary about that email. Had to take it down because people just didn't need such a tool (simply, failed at product-market-fit). I didn't do the validation before. (The biggest mistake an indie hacker could do)
Lessons learned. I will not write a single line of code to build another SaaS once I get at least ~20 pre-orders for my future SaaS products.
Look like you are also on the same path. I'm not saying the same would happen to you but be careful when you don't do the validation part before building a SaaS.
Marketing tip: Invest some in TikTok influencer marketing. 😉
That is completely right, good insight! Actually, I didn't invest a lot of time in this. I thought of doing a waitlist, but since I actually wanted the tool for myself, I just developed it. The thing that took me the longest was understanding the Stripe API (for the first time), so I regret a bit investing all that time. Next time, lesson learned to try something simpler!
Wow, this is a great start. It is not such a long time ago since I suggested a very similar idea, an AI powered summarization tool but more as an extension in the browser(I have a few friends that i keep nagging about my new ideas) for their feedback. The idea came due to a lot of frustration related to doing a lot of manual and repetitive extrapolation of data from news articles. As I do a lot of research I want have an AI to do the research for me, read the article and then condensate it... but my idea differs a little on the presentation part, i guess. So I would really love to discuss further with you around this topic, if you have time and interest.
Thanks for your feedback 😊 would love to talk! Please DM on Twitter @matiasszarfer
How is it better than https://www.summari.com/?
Awesome MVP and problem/solution. But It would be tough if you are going for b2c SaaS model IMHO.
You're right, I would think of that as the next step! Would you sell it as an API or had any ideas in mind?
Could try the API angle, make it as freemium and throttle by volume. Once exceed the free tier, slow it down, inject ads in the content or make user pay...