One year since launch - the goods and bads of being sole dev emperor.

Sometimes I like to stop everything and just think back to reflect. This is a brief post reflecting on my first year building and running a remote work startup, as a single developer/owner. It will have technical aspects. This paired with the fact that I am a developer, is why it is under developers.

I started my project in September 2019. It is an interactive online space for remote-first companies, and online events. Check it out after the read -> https://www.mydigitaloffice.io/

I spent the first month trying to get a cofounder with a compatible skillset. Say marketing, or design.. And also building the core features of the web app. Launch was on Product Hunt in late October of the same year. Due to some good luck, the launch went well. A first wave of user feedback and feature requests guided product decisions for the following couple of months.

Cofounders from a dev perspective:

I had a really hard time convincing anyone, that I knew, to help me with my idea. Most good product people do not want to be led. They want to be the lead of their own products. While they were mostly supportive, no one solidified into the role. In fact, The product name "My Digital Office" was meant to be a placeholder until the potential 'business partner' bought a better domain name. Needless to say, that did not happen :)

There were a few unsolicited offers. Things like - "I like the idea, I can make a video for free if you cut me in? I can also tell you what to build and then you build it..." Many people, even if they have no or very little experience fancy themselves designers or even worse ''product people". This opinion may be unpopular but most of 'product' is decided by customer interactions or pure logic. i.e. An online conferencing app needs video and audio, everyone knows this. I do not need an extra hand letting me know obvious facts.

Additional features ideas can be theorized, built, and then no one will use them. You are just guessing at what people may want, until you are speaking with an actual customer.

On the other hand, a potential customer can bring up a feature idea, you build it and then they pay you for it. In short, I never struck a deal with a would be Project Manager-type because I was already overbooked with feature requests from paying customers. Why would I need someone to tell me what also to build?

TECH:

Creating massive online interactive spaces is tough technically. For example, if 100 people come to an event and 5 cannot get video access, it looks really bad. Very, very bad, if they were event sponsors or company owners.

Here are few examples of people complaining they could not get good video feed, and I jumped in for support.

"I am Tethered via phone and also on a train." Not going to work! The only way I convinced this customer it was not my fault was by having him connect with me on Google Meets, which also did not work. As a startup, by default everything is your fault :)
Users from China and Russia. I had strange IP blocks, and people behind mysteriously wired network firewalls. My policy became, if you can use Zoom you can use my app. TIP: Borrow the technical strategies that the big players use, and use them as a shield.
Users can come up with crazy use cases, and sometimes they do not work. I had one customer, that wanted to use the app for an online role-playing session. He had 70 people, 50+ in age, come into the app, and play out certain business roles. Leading up to the event some of the users reached out to support. 'I just tried to sign up, but no one is in the office space'. Or 'I need a camera to use this?'. The best was 'My computer does not really work right now, when I try to access the browser how do I search for it?' Needless to say, when the actual event happened, these poor baby boomers were completely lost and the customer was not happy as a result. TIP: Shit happens, more often in misplaced use cases. Avoid those if you can.

Another thing is the PaaS you decide to use really matters. There may be somethings that simply will not run well in certain platforms. For example, we have a few audio/video servers that will not run in Heroku or even AWS. Tried with very little sleep for a few weeks, and could not get it running well on any of my preferred PaaS.

TECH TIP: Research the limitations of your PaaS. Be aware of the trade offs.

FINANCING:

I spoke in the early months with a few VCs. I strongly recommend doing this even if it is just pejorative. Most VCs know a lot about companies and tech, they can tell you good things.

One VC went to the final stage talks of a seed deal and then backed out. The reason being "I cannot see, multiple people using this". In all fairness, he could still be right :) A 10k to 100K MRR company is not really what big VC is after.

TIP: Talk to VCs and other people in your local startup space. They have knowledge. If your company does not become a golden unicorn, it is ok.

I had other pseudo VC talks. These are people who's sites say 'partners' or 'funds' but when you actually end up speaking with them, they are neither. I would recommend avoiding these all together.

Location matters a lot with financing. There were a few really good calls with Angels that would have required me to move countries. Not really practical during a global lockdown.

In the end, 100% bootstrapped so far and proud of it :)

SEO:

There are so many myths in the industry about startup success. You may hear about startups, that get massive sales the first few months after launch. Let me assure you, after speaking and reading about 100s of founders, that those special and lucky companies are a unique 1% subset of all startups. Or it is a pure lie. Some companies will rebrand after getting funded, but really have had a product for 2 to 3 years prior.

Moreover, most people will never be able to find your product the first six months. Google and other search engines penalize new domains for at least 6 months, as 'new sites'. These sites are not to be trusted because they may, and very often do, disappear quickly.

TIP: get a domain name and a landing page on it early. ASAP.

After hearing my competition brag a bit about huge growth due to Corona lockdowns, this fact sunk in deep. A company with 3 years invested in SEO is infinitely more findable than a 1<= company. FACT OF LIFE. Not a fact about the quality of your product.

Luckily similar products end up on compare-to lists, and there will be some spillover regardless of SEO.

SALES:

If you are fortunate, some people may reach out to you for commission based sales roles. This means, you pay them nothing unless they get a sale. I have had mixed experience with this, but I still think it is better to say yes to them and let them try.

FANS:

This pushed the needle in terms of MRR more than anything. When I speak to users, I want them to become fans of my product. When they are so happy they feel like sharing, is when I know I did my job.

tip: get user/fans. They spread the word faster than lightening, better than SEO or any other method I have seen so far.

In conclusion, a lot happens over a one year period. The product adapts through good and bad, and each interaction is a stone placed on the next, until you have a comfortable growing SaaS product.

Cheers!