MrScraper

I'm happy to announce a new milestone: MrScraper has crossed the $1,000 ARR mark!

I have also used this opportunity to build an Open Startup page where I share all the metrics.

Thanks to everyone for all the support 🙏

Going for more now! 💪

I'm thrilled to announce that MrScraper.com has the first paying customer! 🚀

I started this adventure back in October as a challenge, inspired by other makers on Twitter. As I explained, I'm a random guy with no audience nor prior projects.

I've just tried to do what I've learned from other makers on Twitter.

Landing that first customer is a huge milestone for any startup, and I couldn't be more grateful. I'm now looking forward to continuing the growth, and building a great and easy tool for web-scraping.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey so far. Excited for what's to come! 🚀

If you're interested in trying MrScraper out, I'm currently offering a grand-fathered 40% discount. Use the code BETA40OFF at the checkout page

Here's a quick summary since day 1 to now (nearly 3 months later):

• Three months ago, I started coding the project from scratch.
• I immediately started building in public, on Twitter and Indie Hackers.
• While I was coding the app, I built a quick landing page to get emails. I gave access to closed beta to the first users.
• A couple of weeks later, changed to an open beta with a proper registration form, since the amount of feedback from closed beta was insufficient.
• I had less active users than expected. But a couple of them gave really useful feedback.
• I worked on the feedback.
• And finally, added a Stripe pricing table and opened the app to everyone.

I would say it was a smooth ride until now. Making a landing page, adding features and this kind of stuff, doesn't bring me out of the comfort zone.

But I can feel that the difficult part starts now. Finding the first paying customer, doing marketing on a consistent basis and fighting with myself not to add more unnecessary features thinking that this is what is needed to bring the first user.

Finding a paying customer, that's my goal for the next weeks.

MrScraper was being tested on a closed beta. I gave access to three rounds of beta testers, but I needed much more activity and feedback to make correct product decisions.

I've decided to move from closed to open beta and let more users try the product for free.

If you are interested in web-scraping, please feel free to create a free account on app.MrScraper.com/register.

You'll still be able to get the same early adopter perks like the closed beta testers.

Thanks!

In the last post, I managed to find 10 testers for MrScraper.

For a few days, I communicated with them and asked what could be improved and what features would they need to start using the product for real.

It was hard, but I managed to code what most users were asking for. Features such as infinite scroll and retrieving collections of data.

V2 of MrScraper is now live, and I gave access to more beta testers from the waiting list.

Let's validate these changes and prepare for the public launch!

New product, no audience, and the goal was to get at least 10 users to sign up for MrScraper waitlist.

And we have done it! 🎉

We have now more than 10 users, and it is time to give access to them in order to test the platform.

Next week, I will be applying changes based on the user's feedback and preparing the app for the official launch.

🚀🚀🚀

I wrote the previous posts retroactively, since I didn't have my Indie Hacker account approved by then.

We are now here, in the third week, building my product.

We have:

• An MVP
• A landing page

It's time to get the first 10 subscriptions to the early adopters list. Once I reach 10 users, I'll give access for free to them. I'll try to improve the app based on their feedback.

For now, I have activated Google and Twitter Ads campaign. Let's see if we can achieve this goal too. 💪

Second week, and it was time to explain to the potential customers, what's the product about.

As I said in the previous post, I just had a login page and the app. I needed to build a simple marketing page to explain and sell the product.

The goal for the week was to build one single landing page, wasn't allowed to code nor build features for the app.

1. I wrote content on a blank HTML page following the simple AIDA formula.
2. I organized into sections and added the markup for titles, paragraphs, etc.
3. I added some styles and images.

And published the page! It wasn't perfect, I even forgot simple things like a favicon 😅

But task done, check! ✅

After thinking about the idea, a bit of market research, and writing down some notes on how to build the MVP, I started pushing some code.

I decided I would be building a really simple initial version during the first week. Just the most basic of the features.

I didn't use fancy technologies, nor I re-invented the wheel from scratch. I just used what I already know in order to go faster.

At the end of the week, I published a simple MVP. No frontend at all, just the login page and the app.

Task done, check! ✅

I've been a developer for a few years now. Just a normal developer, with a normal 9-5 office job.

Everything changed when I discovered nomadlist.com and started investigating about Pieter Levels and other makers on Twitter.

I started following awesome people building really cool products. No bosses, no VC, just enjoying building their "little" cool products.

Many Tweets and open startup pages motivated me and I decided to give it a try building my product as well.

I made a quick notes file and wrote down some of the problems I was facing daily at the computer. And this is where MrScraper idea came from.

No fancy story behind it, but I'll do my best! 💪