Chirrup
The easiest way to talk to customers | B2B SaaS
They say the first one is the hardest. And that's SOO true!
While you've already convinced yourself that everyone will want your product. Convincing others is a whole different conversation.
But like so many other founders have said, keep chugging forward and your time will come.
But the big lesson from my story: relationships matter.
Our first official paid user was someone I met 6 years ago! When I first started my previous company, I was told to contact this company as they were a good prospect for our services (outsourced customer support). They had a large enough business where it would have been a monumental deal if we landed it.
Here's the short version: I flew to Maui, met with the owner, and didn't get the deal.
But I did keep in touch, checking in periodically (like once a year) to see if they were looking to make any changes.
Fast forward to Chirrup. I'd heard your existing network is the best place to sell. So scrolling through my contacts, I saw this old prospect and decided to reach out.
And the time was perfect. They had struggled to find a good solution for two-way texting with customers. And since I already had a relationship, the actual sales process was complete after one email and a 10-minute call.
But we made it! First deal is on the books :)
GOAL #1: get first users
GOAL #2: get first ten users
GOAL #3: get first 100 users
No time for resting, time to grind even harder!
- Dashboard in a working state (you can log in and out)
- Collecting customer data from third-party app. The "integrations" feature we're selling :)
- Multi-channel messaging works! Inbound text messages, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger messages all come into the app and users can respond from the app
- And our Slack integration works - so you can respond to inbound messages from Slack.
BOOOM!
Started bringing concepts to life. Quickly went from building something that does everything - to "how can we make an app that will send a text message?" But the time for thinking was over and we finally started building. No name yet, but have a database and VERY basic dashboard set up :)
As the prompt says, "I've read so many times that you should solve your own problem." So true!
Pre-covid - I ran a small customer service company (a boutique call center) that only worked with travel companies (tour and activity providers). For 5 years we answered phones and emails for about 60 companies across the US. It was highly labor-intensive and waaaay too much work for I was taking home. PRO TIP: don't start a company that's open 20 hours a day year-round if you value your time in any way.
During that time - I jumped from different call center platforms and SaaS products to try and make my team efficient. I also saw a growing trend in using messaging (live chat, SMS, etc.) as a support channel. We tried and it was immediately obvious that responding to a text message was so much faster and easier than answering a phone. Agents could talk to 5 people at once and it was so much cheaper to handle.
Fast forward - my company was starting to sink. Sales were struggling, I got burned by a large client, and my labor costs weren't getting any smaller. Oh - the business was insanely seasonal so winter time (when tourism drops) was always a struggle. Then Covid hit. Travel came to a halt - all my clients shut down and we quickly followed.
Fast forward even more - I was in Hawaii chatting with an old client (now my co-founder) saying, "wouldn't it be nice if customers could text you, but you weren't forced to have a cell phone to respond? "
Lightbulb moment. Yes, there are TONS of other business text messaging apps out there. But there were NONE that focused on the travel industry. They usually catered to insurance companies or retail stores. I knew the industry. I had personally talked to thousands of travelers. I knew what questions they asked, why they called companies, and how businesses get bogged down doing customer support. And I knew that if more companies had a tool to be able to use text messaging, that it would save them a ton of time and money.
And that's where the journey began.
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