Dropkiq
Liquid Expressions Simplified
I'm so excited!!! I needed to share this!
This was way tougher than I ever imagined it would be. To achieve this milestone has taken months! In fact, it has been nearly 1 year exactly since I started this journey (in a few days).
I honestly thought that I would be making hundreds of thousands of dollars already and people would be signing up without any work from me. This project has taught me "The hustle", and how it can take a really long time for new ideas and products to catch on.
For all the founders out there that are just getting started, keep going!
Selling a technology product to a niche market is extremely hard! I've tried cold email marketing tactics, but the days are long and traffic stops as soon as you do.
I realized that I had to change up my strategy... I've recently started getting into content marketing. It made me realize that's the version of "working smarter, not harder" for marketers.
Initially, I had three blog posts written that were sequential. I started writing the fourth and realized... wait a minute. I'm basically writing a book. So, I kept going. I got some help with the parts I'm not good at, and today I'm releasing it for free!
Who knows... Maybe there are some people on Indiehackers that it could help? If so, I would love to hear from you!
The company that I started in November, Dropkiq https://www.dropkiq.com/ 🥊, just got our first real sale! It was a direct sale, and I was so nervous on the call!
In the first month of product development, I build the wrong thing! 😱 I had to pivot away from what I built and basically restart. I'm so glad that I did though, because I think that I have a product people actually want now!
I'm continuing to learn a TON about Product, sales, and marketing. This is what I always struggle with, so I'm trying to embrace the unknown and go after it head on! 🔥
We worked quick! We have an MVP product online at https://www.dropkiq.com/! We already have lots of features built out!
We have 3 initial customers that I found through the initial product validation interviews. Many of the features that I initially built were things that I knew we needed, but I'm now trying to let my customers guide my path forward with their feedback...
Now, I'm looking to see who else in the world is interested in this product?! 🤩
This was one of the scariest and most difficult decisions of my life! I started at this job straight out of college as an intern. The company was a startup with ~15 employees. Over the past 10 years, it grew to ~350, and then was acquired and become ~2500 people! The people that I worked with were some of the best and smartest I've ever meet!
I can't say enough good things about my corporate career! I learned so much during that time. However, I'm turning 30 years old this year, and I know that I have to go for it before it's too late!
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Congratulations! I put in my notice at work at the beginning of this month, and my last day is the day before Thanksgiving (November 27 in the US). I'm walking away from a cushy six-figure salary with amazing benefits, but I recently realized that my list of app and service ideas just keeps growing longer, and I'll regret not trying to develop them. I'll give myself a couple of years to see how far I can get with them. Worst-case scenario is that I end up going back to work after learning a ton and meeting a lot of new people!
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Congrats man! Not going to lie quitting with only $100 MRR sounds pretty scary. But it sounds like you probably have some savings, and a plan. I quit my day job 5 years ago, and wow has it been a grind. I quit at $1,000 MRR and wasn't able to grow it nearly as fast as I would like. But with some smart budgeting, and another side hustle I was able to make it through.
Good luck!
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Thanks, man! Yes, it's super scary, but you're right that I have some savings that can get me by for a little while. Best of luck to you also! 🤩
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Just to add one thing....
No matter how much you like your day job (as in my case), corporate jobs have a way of trapping you... They start you out making a little money, and every year they keep increasing it. Your lifestyle adjusts and you get used to making more money... and at some point, even if you want to start your own thing, you simply make too much money to make the leap! It feels like you've grown too far to leave it all behind.
This probably resonates with many people in this community... Feel free to email me if this is on your mind and you want to chat! adam@dropkiq.com
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“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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LOL I wish getting enticing annual raises was a problem I had to deal with ;)
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Touché, haha :)
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This so much!! The golden handcuffs trapped me. It took a ton of work to extract from the lifestyle built around the benefits but now I’m tons more agile now.
For anyone young in your career, try to live way below what you are bringing in. You will appreciate it later in life plus it’s way more healthy.
Burnout can happen at any time and your brain will welcome the ability to be able to duck out and heal without putting you and your family in a big bind.
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@akdarrah absolutely. I know this will be an issue for me. When I talk about leaving my day job for my business if it get's to 'x' MRR number, she argues that I will probably still be taking a pay cut.
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@colin_mcatee That may be true right now, but possibly not in the long run. For the money argument, I would argue that you will probably not ever make more money than your boss at your job, so there is a ceiling limit no matter how much work you put in... When it comes to your own venture, this limit no longer exists.
I'm taking this leap because it's super exciting to me and I'm having so much fun, but also because I think I will be better off financially in the long run if my hustle pays off (even though in the short term, there may be some sacrifice 😆)
Also, as someone who did hiring in my previous role, you will absolutely have an advantage if things fall through and you do need to find a new role somewhere.
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I left a super cushy job back in Feb. some nights I do the maths on how much money I'd have in the bank if I stayed. and then some days I talk to people who still work there and I remember what corporate life was like! :D
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Hey Adam 👋
That’s a bold decision. I understand how scary it feels as I’m in a similar position.
For people with technical skills like yours it makes long term strategic sense to build for yourself, rather than for others at an hourly rate. As you’d well know, finding the bandwidth to do so is often a real roadblock to meaningful progress when you’re a FTE. Once this is clearly internalised, it’s just becomes a matter of perspective, I think.
I reckon it was the 4hour work week that described people who work for 6 months to save money and then go on holiday/travel for 3 months, living off their savings... this is how I’m going to approach getting my own products off the ground from here on out.
Work to save. Then build to prosper! 🙂-
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The 4-hour week was at the start of my business 7 years ago. I got scared of the prospect of 30 more years working as a corporate rat (really well paid) and started looking around. I am still employed but the side hustle makes more than my job at this point and I have a choice. Saving up now to make the leap in a few years.
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That’s great! Well done. 👍
I saw some of your other posts re: your app.
Are you willing to share some basic info about it?
I built a dietary app for iPad when iPad was first released - my app was live a few weeks after I received my iPad and I was really proud of it. As you can imagine these types of indiehackers/maker forums didn’t exist at the time and I lost motivation when I didn’t make a million dollars in the first 6 months. I also had a high paying job so it seemed needlessly onerous to keep coding and running support all the time.
My inspiration for building at the time was partly driven by Amy Hoys blog about Freckle and 30x500 and partly just for building on iOS. Seems like an eternity ago, I wish I didn’t stop, I might be “free” today!-
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My business inspiration was a colleague of mine who built an astronomy app in his spare time and sold ~1M copies (my guesstimate). That gave me the idea that it is actually doable in one person.I'd say it's much smarter to go with a subscription business but I didn't know that those 6 years ago. The iOS market is HUGE, people don't realize that. So even if you sell something for $2-4, solve a unique problem, you can still sell 100s of thousand copies.
I don't want to share the app category as I'm in the top 5-10 in quite a few countries all the time and don't want to give anyone hints :-) It's a niche but for 5-10% of the US population.
Re "I lost motivation when I didn’t make a million dollars in the first 6 months." - haha, that's where I was and was expecting the same thing. Instead, I got a slowly but surely (exponentially) growing sales numbers; I'm at an avg. of 130 sales / day worldwide for $4.5. (Apple gives me 70% of that) It's not so much about the idea; it's also quality/execution and spreading the word. I still haven't figured out how to market it but word of mouth is powerful.The first few years were a bit difficult but then i realized that each year i can improve or add something and it has more or less doubled every year since. I still only spend 10-12 hours on it a week including support so i feel guilty that i could have been much further. My backlog is for another 2-3 years.
Btw. If you want to see estimates on any app revenue, register with SensorTower (for free) - you will be surprised how little some known businesses make and how much others do.-
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Hey Dave
I appreciate the reply and I totally understand not wanting to divulge your app details.
I will take a look at sensorflow. I was going to let my app developer account lapse (I haven’t put an app in the store for years!) but you’ve inspired me - maybe I’ll have another crack in the AppStore!Well done for creating a successful app. 👍
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The website is: https://sensortower.com
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Thanks Dave! Just signed up. Looks like lots of insight can be gleaned from it.
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Love that way of thinking! You can do it! 💪
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Hey Adam!
Congrats on this move. Dropkiq looks really neat - I hope you get the traction you need to make things happen. 🤙I happen to work at Shopify... is there anything we could do to make your life easier building out Dropkiq?
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Hi @dylanblanchard! I would love to connect over the phone if that works? If so, you can reach me at adam[at]dropkiq.com
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Yessss - this is what it’s all about! Go on Adam!
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That's great Adam. Looking to do the same soon :)
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Thanks! You can do it! 💪
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IMO, It's never too late, just takes a different approach 😉 But congrats regardless!!
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Best feeling in the world. Congrats. 🎉
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Good on you!
(I'm chuckling slightly at the idea it's nearly too late; I only started my big thing at 43!)-
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Haha 😂 it's never too late, just gotta seize the day!
I read recently that the average age of the fastest growing startups in the US is 46. Everyone thinks it's a college kid in a hoodie, but not so!
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Great for you! I am looking forward to the updates about your journey!
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This is amazing, I know you would achieve all your goals. Right now I doing my best to be able to say the same.
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Congrats!
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Good luck!
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This is certainly a huge step to take. I hope you all the best. Good luck !
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Good luck and all the best!!!
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Congrats Adam, welcome to the club 🙂
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This comment was deleted 6 years ago
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Haha! That's amazing!
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I've worked on side projects in the past, and the number one thing I learned is to make sure people want the product you're working on BEFORE building the product.
Without any code written, I set up coffee meetings with all the smart people that I know. I got their feedback, listened to their ideas, and shaped my product vision around what I heard. I created a spreadsheet to track my meetings and feedback.
In total, I talked with 17 people! 🤓
At my corporate day job as a software engineer, I spent a lot of time trying to teach non-technical people how to use an internal no-code tool that we built. People had an easy time understanding how to create interfaces and build out logic, but the hardest thing to explain was how to use the Liquid (built by Shopify https://shopify.github.io/liquid/). I realized that if this is tough for us, it must be difficult for other companies too! 🤔
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Congratulations.
What marketing channels are working for you?
To be honest, I don't think we've figured out the answer to that question yet... I think the answer right now is none of them. What I've learned is that when you have a product this niche, you should promote the life style, not the product. This is the classic go-to read for that if you're interested:
https://medium.com/@stewart/we-dont-sell-saddles-here-4c59524d650d