4k traction that lead to $274 and a dead product
by Igor LankoIn 2020 ≈ 4.2k impressions gave us ≈700 email subscriptions. We didn't launch at the time, just posted a marketing site with features to a bunch of sites.
After a few months of beta testing, we were at about 30 WAU. Then I decided to introduce a paid plad—$8/mo or $80/y.
We've got ≈8 subscribers in the first week, two of which subscribed annually right away. The all time income from Collecta so far is $274.84.
WAU went from 30 to 5, and then to 2. I'm still not sure of the reasons to be honest.
I sent an email asking why people cancelled. Got only 1 reply—they weren't interested in online, they found different tools like http://eagle.cool.
I'm still not sure what to make of it. We got so much interested at the start, but the product wasn't providing enough value to be paid for.
The best thing—I think the problem is still real (https://twitter.com/jayhxmo/status/1679699648112644096).
My positioning wasn't right?
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Hi, had a look at your site, I think you should use something like chat gpt to improve the language on the site. People are security conscious. It also seems incomplete
Also if the user said they don't want an online version you only offer mac os. So maybe people would want a free version that they can use and you could offer a paid version that will provide premium features?
Also right now there is an ai hype can you incorporate ai to say auto categorise those screenshots
If there are free alternatives out there that do half the job why would I pay to use the service, would be my thought. Also if I just want something on my comp then you could maybe have a non subscription price for the desktop version and if there are updates you can charge for the updated version so a one off price for that version . Just thoughts have a look at Snagit-
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Hey thanks! I wasn't really trying to compete with screenshot tools, I think in the times when something CleanShot is available, it's even harder.
Thanks for the perspective regarding the free desktop app vs online paid version. I didn't think about it from this angle!
Ultimately, I wanted to bring this to something between Are.na and MyMind (way before it was launched actually) with instant desktop screenshoting capabilities. Now I'm not sure.
Speaking of AI and auto-categorizing—100% agree. It only makes sense here. I'm not sure how to start on this though, I'm not really an engineer, have no idea where to get going on ML/AI.
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It's useless to ask people for feedback after they churn. They're not interested anymore, why would they waste their time on you?
Try to make talking the ones who are still there. Ask them how they use your tool (maybe they're doing it wrong), their friction points, why they prefer you over your competitors, what features they expect you to have, etc. Promise them a free year if needed, feedback is more valuable than money.
Solve the churn problem first, then go for acquisition. You can spend a lot of effort on your landing page and get more users only to lose them the next month if your churn is too high.
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Thank you. This makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the churn was pretty drastic and the DAU is 1—and it's me.
Not sure how to proceed now. If not to talk to the churned ones, acquire more? But how? And how would I know how to fix the potential churn?
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Then just find 10 potential niches for your product, cold-message a bunch of people in each niche, and verify that they have this problem and want to pay for a solution. Pretend that you don't have a product and are just checking the market. Then rewrite it from scratch or move to your next idea depending on the feedback.
If you can't figure out a couple of niches, you're too generic and you'll have a big problem selling it w/o funding. If you can't get people from a particular niche to talk to you then they don't have this problem. If you can't reach a particular niche then it's not a good niche to sell to.
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Took a look at your site. Do you work in this space? Because there seems like a lot of friction to me. A lot of these things end up in other tools like figma, notion etc which is already a part of a larger workflow hence less friction. Hell even Apple notes and their new whiteboard tool has import features like this which again is already within a workflow/ecosystem.
Take this with a grain of salt, but this seems like it would be better as a browser plug-in with export to x tool eg, figma, notion etc. seems like much less friction to me.
