Orapa
Pay-per-meeting marketplace for sales reps & startups
So we just crossed $30k in ARR and today we're launching on Product Hunt. The last 3 months was an awesome journey. We went from $0-$30k in ARR.
Few things I've learned:
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If can show traction more talent will help you on your journey. No one wants to work for a company that isn't growing fast.
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Stuff just takes a lot more time than you think. It's pretty obvious - I know. My rule: 3X the time I think it will take and see if this worst-case scenario works for me.
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Focus on sales. If you want revenue and users it's easier to fix other parts of your startup.
Show some love on PH here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/orapa
So my goal was to hit 5k ARR by the end of the September. I think I can start celebrating as I'm just a few bucks shy of 5K.
My goals are now to build a great community and focus on nailing the first 10-20 deals right. Plus I want to be adding around new customers so I can hit 30k ARR by the end of 2020 - think it's very doable.
Of course, revenue is important but I also need to customers happy! So I will be focusing more on making the deals right on the platform.
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Congratulations. What is the total number of trial and paid customers?
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I just launched the trial version so have no idea. Paying customers - now I think 15.
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This is amazing!
How do you find customers?
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Congratulations. It is not easy.
On your site, you said sales reps are paid per meeting booked. What happens if a client books a meeting and refused to show for the call?
At what point is the sales reps paid? Is it once the calendar invite is sent or when a lead is converted?
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No shows are not qualified meetings. So if the lead won't show up the sales rep is not getting paid. It's their job to send thoughtful value-driven remainders so potential clients will show.
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Happy answer all the questions on how I did that here in this comment! Shoot.
Send a few cold emails, booked a few demos and added over $1k in a week. I'm defo on track to pass 5k mark this month but I do need to focus more on sales.
Been focusing on making the prodcut usable and also getting over 40 reps onboarded on my platform. Now is the time to get more business.
Last few weeks have been awesome to me. I've been hearing a ton fo great feedback from startups but also from sales reps.
Let's go!
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This is very interesting! Well done.
What if a sales rep books a meeting and the wasn't held due to some reasons. Will the sales rep be paid?
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Do you charge sales reps by taking a cut from their earnings?
If no, do you plan on making money from sales reps in the future?
Training them, organising webinars and resolving their programs is work. How do you make money from them apart from the yearly subscriptions by the employers?
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Not now. But I plan on taking a cut from the commission made through the platform, not from meetings booked by the reps.
Whats your view?
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What is special about Orapa that will make founders to keep using it?
Founders can sign up, hire 2 -3 sales reps, cancel their subscription, and continue working with the sales reps outside your platform.
How do you solve such churn?
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Great question! One of the things that is keeping companies on the platform is that sales reps need a comfort and stability of getting paid for their work. We are helping them solve their disputes. Also, there is a strong community around sales reps.
Also, that's why there is an annual plan only. And companies are paying for the ability to find another rep at any time. Hoping to roll out a payment system that would like any marketplace platform to solve churn.
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Did an awesome promo (50% of annual plan) and got a few cool companies. Now I am talking a few days to build a working MVP using webflow and airtable with a bit for automation to support the scale.
I've already built out onboarding flow and majority part of the platform. My focus for the next 2 weeks: finish MVP, get more sales reps, send crap-ton of cold emails and get to 5K ARR by the end of August.
Think I'll make it?
Just started running outbound campaigns and closed 3 sales that resulted in $1k in ARR! Very happy to scale this right now to have at least 20 companies by the September so the platform would have solid volumes.
In the meantime, I am designing an onboarding flow so I could remove my time from a sales process and only jump into demos when necessary and direct more people to self serve model.
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Interesting. Signed up for a demo.
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This seems like a really useful service. Nice site design too!
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I love your landing page, simple and to the point. Moving to an onboarding flow that is a little more automated is great!
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Thanks! all build in webflow
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@stanrym thanks for sharing your results! Your product would be an amazing fit for us. We have a product that's highly in-demand, but we don't have the funds to cover payroll for our sales reps, so a solution where we can offer great commission is the perfect solution for us.
I've been working in affiliate marketing for 11 years, and it's essentially the same model you have: you pay only for results. Would love to learn more!
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let's chat then! -> https://calendly.com/stan-orapa/demo
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Great job! I love the idea.
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cheers
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Congrats. Was looking for something like this yesterday. I have a couple of companies this could be used for. Signed up for demo. Can you shoot me some info about pricing and process? Am at Andrew medal dot com 🤙🏼
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Glad we connect here and over the email!
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Great stuff Stan! Is this purely focused on the US? Would you sell your service to a UK audience?
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We mostly work with US and EMEA so yeah the UK would be covered. Saw that you booked a demo - thanks!
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I love this idea and I think it's exactly what I need right now. I set up a meeting to chat next week.
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Awesome! Glad we're able to connect!
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I love your product. I wonder if something like this works for hiring technical recruiters
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I don't know the market that much but I think yeah
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congrats!
Could you walk us through your outbound process?
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Keep it up! Always great and invigorating making the first $ for the startup :)
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Thanks!
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This comment was deleted 4 years ago
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Cheers
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9 Comments
Stupid question but, how do you know you have Annual Recurring Revenue when you are in business for 3 months though?
Maybe that's just me but an ARR is only meaningful if it is P12M, or at the very least P6M*2 , anything else is wishful thinking. Lots of businesses have seasonality effects, early adopters peak, market saturation, to just take last month and multiply it by 12.
Exactly! Thanks for articulating this out for me..
Extrapolated his monthly revenue
I track ARR since I was selling yearly subscription in the first couple of weeks, so it's easier to see progress. My ARR is just a projection of how much my revenue would be if it stayed the same for the next 12 months.
I see. Congrats on your accomplishment so far!
This looks exciting!
Quick question... what's the motivation for the companies to get listed and get pitched to?
They're actively looking to buy a solution? Like they'd sign up to bounty hunt for the right SaaS/agency?
Upvoted on PH :)
Just upvoted; congrats on the launch!
Upvoted, all the best!