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9 Comments

Pivoting after making $109,000 in revenue in 2019

  1. 2

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this, coding up a job board always sounded like a fun thing to do but thinking about the business side of it always turned me away from it. Although you even brought up a few points I didn't even think about before.

    Are you also planning to have different levels of pricing for PublishZen? Sounds like a cool idea that I could use to write good copy but 100 articles / month sounds like more than I'll ever need.

    Either way good luck with the new venture!

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot! Yes, we plan on having different levels of pricing. Out of the gate we just created one all-encompassing tier (most companies I've talked to wouldn't hit the 100 articles/month tier).

      If you're interested in kicking the tires on what we're building feel free to email me at [email protected] and I'd be happy to offer a reduced price to accomodate what you're looking for!

  2. 2

    Great read. External recruiting is hard! I've been in tech recruiting for 7 years at an agency and it takes years of forging relationships and networking to build consistent business.

    1. 1

      It really is. Fundamentally we just couldn't overcome the mis-aligned incentives between us and the companies we were working with. It sounds like you have figured that out so well done!

  3. 2

    Understandable pivot and I don't think anyone can blame you. Best of luck on your next venture.

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it.

  4. 2

    I just pivoted too. I was building applicant tracking software for 15 months and retention was a big problem.

    I learned that building applicant tracking software for small businesses doesn't worth it. They don't hire often. Their life time value is about 2 months because many small businesses hire once in 1 year or even 2 years.

    Getting big customers as a solo founder is almost impossible. 99% of them go for big names in the industry such as Lever.co, greenhouse.io, workable.com, etc. They have the money to pay for the best tool and my product was no where near the best tool it just works.

    Sales cycle with these enterprises takes months, so many paper works, and due diligence. I didn't have the resources for that.

    On to the next challenge, I'm done with B2B. I'm currently focusing on B2C. I'm helping working professionals add more sources to their income.

    How can PublishZen help careermove.io rank well on Google? I'm happy to jump on a call.

    1. 1

      I can totally relate to that problem. The companies were were working with were typically not constantly hiring, especially in the roles we specialized in (data science and engineering) and the sales cycles for large enterprises was brutal.

      I've heard from a few other founders building an ATS and it seems like a very competitive space unless you can find a very specific niche to target. Good luck with careermove!

  5. 1

    Hey, this is really exciting stuff. I just sent you an email. I would really love to get to this point with my SAAS https://storycreatorapp.com/. Let me know if you would be interested in having a quick chat.

  6. 1

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