My beta got to #1 on Hacker News and I need advice on what to do next
Hey everyone! I'm really happy today, because my Saas KanbanMail (https://kanbanmail.app) got to #1 on Hacker News! (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17576024) I was asleep when it happened, but friends sent me screenshots 😉. Some of the comments were harsh (no surprise there), but there was lots of good feedback.
While this is awesome, there are many things I need to think about now. I'm going to share my situation, and I'd really appreciate any advice.
Basically, KanbanMail is a web app I've been working on for the last month or so. I plan to charge $12/month. I decided to put it online yesterday so some people could check it out for real and tell me what they thought. It's not a finished product – there are still quite a few glitches and many important features missing, but you can get an idea for what it will be like. So I made the beta free, because it's not good enough to charge for yet.
People can only access the web app once I manually put them on a separate list. There are currently 17 people who have access to KanbanMail. Now 250 people have signed up to the waiting list, mostly from Hacker News. I don't think all of them understand that it's a fairly crude beta or not.
My initial gut feeling is to give them access in batches – let's say 30 per week. Even 30 is quite a few beta testers, and I'm honestly not sure if I could keep up with the feature requests, bug reports, issues and feedback of 250 individual beta testers.
Also, I was going to make KanbanMail free forever for beta testers to encourage them to join and as a way to say thanks. But with 250 people, I'm going to ask them to pay (and give a discount) once KanbanMail gets out of beta. I'll give it free to some friends and very helpful people.
So, what do you think? Should I let everyone in immediately? How will I keep up? How will I make sure everybody is clear about what's going on? I'm only one person (who's relatively busy), so I don't have the time to spend hours each day trawling through conversations.
Great that you're getting this attention. KanbanMail shows early promise of validation. The next next step is getting someone to pay for this.
You need to develop a good filter, in what advice to follow, and what not to follow. Really think about what you want your product to be, at the core. Advice that takes you towards that core, entertain it, otherwise, ignore it. That way you don't end up with a confused product.
I would say, let them in, in batches, like it's been suggested. How many per batch, you need to figure that out, but keep it manageable for you to handle.
Charge as early as you're comfortable with. Only then will you know if it's a viable idea. Free users don't carry the same weight, when it comes to advice they give.
Regarding communication, just be as open and transparent as you can be. People really respect that. You don't need to go into all details, but let them know it's a crude beta, and you've still got stuff to iron out. On your site it says you're an indie maker, so people will understand.
Lastly, don't be afraid to screw up. All of this is an experiment. You've got some initial attention, which is great. Try not to plan too much, and go with your gut as much as possible.
Sometimes it helps talking things through, just to get your thoughts in order. I'm available for that, if you like. DM me on Twitter if you want to go on a call or whatever.
Side note: You're landing page is great, within seconds I understand your products value.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Leandro, great advice!
Hi, Ethan! Congratulation the achievement! Mind sharing what was the traffic received from being #1? Also, your servers survived?
Is $12 there for a reason? I am asking as $9 looks much more user-friendly.
Hey Bart! Thanks! Sure, here's a screenshot https://i.imgur.com/zV6FVPt.png
3.5K visitors at the most active hour, 17K total today. Still ~35-40 active visitors on at any one time. Note that this is for the entire site, not just the web app – I've still only given 17 people access to that!
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I was doing some maths:
3 users at $12 = 4 users at $9.
So for $9 to be worth it, at least one in every four users who signed up wouldn't have done so if it was $12. I could be wrong, but I don't think it would be that many...
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I will definitely monitor it, and make sure to make it paid at least a week before launch so I can test pricing & conversions
KanabanMail is a cool idea. I couldn't figureout from your site if it is a desktop app or a browser extension.
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It's a web app. Will definitely make it more clear before launch :D
Hah, I saw that post on HN today. Congrats on getting to #1.
I think you're plan to allow users in batches is a good one. That will allow you to get feedback from a larger user-base, but not become overwhelmed. Also, depending on how fast you can fix those glitches and add features, you can make sure to improve it for each new batch of users. You're sure to find more issues and opportunities as you open it up to more users too.
The risk with batching is that if you take too long to open it to the users further back in line, they may forget they signed up and never respond.
I would do batches despite the risk personally.
Thinking of doing something similar.
Just curious, why don't you give the first 250 a free forever access? I think that should get you passionate brand advocates very early.
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Hey!
So basically, it didn't bring me down too much. In fact, it was actually slightly less negative than I was expecting! But it did make me see that there is a lot of work to be done on the landing page before I launch it.
Dude this is the game, you're in an exciting game. Take it all in and enjoy the fact that people are willing to give you their time to scream at you and praise you at the same time lol. So cool. Build Build Build Test Test Test. PRops!
That's great, you're never going to please everyone so it's good you're seeing the positives in negative feedback. One thing to note are all the things you think obviously still need a lot of work in your app that nobody mentioned. You could work on your app in private for years trying to pre-empt all potential negative feedback but if you release earlier it helps you focus on what people actually care about.