The first 100 users, three MVPs, embedded AI and new site
I would like to share an update on my journey so far.
Last year, I embarked on a mission to create learning courses based on books for business, driven by the realization that there is often not enough time to read books :(( Unfortunately, for me personally, reading summaries alone was insufficient, as they didn't allow for the practical application of the ideas contained within the books.
Over the course of one year, I tested various hypotheses, made changes to the product, and released three versions of MVPs (for example, began building case-study and quizes to enhance skills based on book by using AI). Simultaneously, I acquired my first 100 paid customers. Throughout this process, I conducted approximately 200 interviews ...
Now, I am thrilled to announce the launch of my new website, storist.me. It features a fresh design, a tone of voice, and an new value proposition.
I would greatly appreciate your valuable criticism and feedback. Please feel free to point out any areas that you think need improvement or aspects that you particularly like or dislike.
Thank you for your support!
Congrats, pretty cool!
It's so nice. I'll share with team too :))
Nice and congrats! I think giving people 2-3 examples of the books would go a long way (you don't have to give them the whole course/book on your platform but could offer up like the first few paragraphs on the home page to give people a "free trial")
For me I love the brand and the premise is good, but it'd be hard for me to make an account without an example (however this may not be true for other people, I just already do a lot of reading so scanning the content to see the value before creating an account would help easy onboarding for potential users like me)
Love the site's design!
Quick Note: I think the purple slider section may have been broken on first load in Chrome but on refresh it was fine
Please, would you like to clarify, what if we do not give full access, but open more key ideas? For example, not 1-2, but 3-4 at once?
PS. I am co-founder of Storist - and also Andrew ... it came out by accident :))
Hi! Just answered your question in my response to Andrew!
Congrats on the launch and happy Indiehacking!
Thank you so much for such a thorough response! Yes ... you are right ... giving full interactive summary it's a great idea.
I've been contemplating launching on Product Hunt (PH), and to do that, I'd like to prepare a set of 10 top questions from entrepreneurs in a Storist format. For instance "How to acquire first customers" (including a comprehensive guide and real-life case studies) and "How to successfully launch on PH" (also with a comprehensive guide and real-life case studies), and ....
Alternatively, I'm considering creating free content based on one or two books, such as "Zero to One" or "The Lean Startup." What are your thoughts on this?
What do you think?
I think the free content idea might increase your scope a bit HOWEVER if you track your time and put the emails value at $4 per email then you know how many emails you need to "make the money back" (to take this further you can do rough math on the sales potential of your product).
Growing an email list is good as if you align to the list personally as a founder then you can carry the subscribers with you into future endeavors (I highly recommend building a personal email list and a business one, but only spend 30-60 minutes a day on each)
I personally really like the idea of the Top 10 Questions I think having this very early on the home page could help a lot especially if a free preview system was added.
I think it'd also be good to see how you can rank on google from the summaries.
Like at @Andrey_Solntsev was asking, maybe what you do isn't give full summaries for free but maybe there's a more concise version that can also be picked up by Google to help you rank SEO-wise over time to get "free" traffic from Google.
My recommendation even before doing the Product Hunt launch would be to build small email list (like about 100 people) then engage with them via Zoom/Hangouts to better understand how the market feels about the product.
To get your first 100 emails you can use channels like Reddit, Discord, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook (I feel like community-based marketing has been really popular this year).
@vintually Big Thx 🙏🏼
Thanks for your comprehensive and extremely useful response.
I've gained two terrific ideas from our dialogue.
First: Creating a small version of summaries without any interactivity but with the main ideas of the book. It will be palatable and digestible for Google and people who want to spend just a few minutes to grasp the book. Just as we have a blog https://media.storist.me/ and we are thinking about how to do landings on specific books ... it's adorable!
Second: Test the TOP 10 ... bla-bla-bla by collecting emails and talking with them about the value of this product.
Thank you! I greatly appreciate your suggestions!
Hi, Andrew.
This is such a thoughtful idea. Congratulations on your launch!
Where did you find your initial users?
It's a good question. We carried out three steps.
First, we reached out to our close circle of network, including friends, friends of friends, and coworkers.
Second, we placed ads on FB/Instagram, asking users to leave their phone numbers so we could contact them directly. Then, we communicated with users and made our initial offers to purchase.
Third, we ran ads on FB/Instagram directing users to a landing page with an offer to buy. Afterwards, we reached out to those who made a purchase and asked them about their reasons.
By the way, it's not enough to simply acquire first customers; it is more important to actively engage with them. I recommend reading "The Mom Test" (which we also have in our interactive summary format).
PS. I previously prepared a guide titled "Where and How to Find Respondents," which you can use to find your first customers through user interviews. Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pq69q7hljcr5LTsT3JxL3V6ary1SEEU_/view