Getting to 20k MRR with Swifteq

This month, I hit an important milestone — over €20,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and over 300 customers with Swifteq. We create Zendesk apps that help customer support teams work smarter, not harder. That’s over 120% growth in the last year!

Swifteq is completely bootstrapped (no outside investors), solely founded and profitable, which is a great feeling. The journey’s had its ups and downs, but overall it’s been exciting and rewarding.

I love the independence of running my own company. No investors or co-founders means I get to focus on what matters most: my customers. Sure, there’s more responsibility, but the freedom that comes with it is totally worth it.

Looking back, here’s what I think I’ve done well, where I could improve, and what I’m planning for the future:

What I’ve Done Well ✅

Built useful tools: I’ve focused on creating apps that make a real difference in my customers’ day-to-day work. All my recent apps have paying customers, and some are driving a lot of our recent growth.

Automated routine tasks: I’ve freed up my time by automating parts of the trial and customer lifecycle processes that used to take up too much of my day.

Created excellent documentation: With the help of a fantastic writer, we’ve built a great help center and kept it up to date based on customer questions. This is an ongoing process, but it’s paying off.

Written helpful blog posts: With the help of a great industry-focused content marketing agency, we’ve shared practical tips and insights for customer support teams using Zendesk on Swifteq’s blog.

Started taking marketing seriously: I’m still new to this, but I’ve made good progress recently.

Where I Can Do Better ❌

Underpriced most apps: I initially set prices too low and was slow to correct them. This hindered my ability to reach profitability sooner and reinvest in the business. Lesson learned: Low prices might work for mass consumer or close to consumer markets, but not so much for niche B2B products.

Ignored marketing and sales: Being an engineer, I love building products. But I neglected marketing, even missing a major website indexing issue that hurt my SEO efforts for months.

Took on too much development work: Instead of hiring developers, I tried to handle too much of the technical work myself. This took away time I could have spent on growing the business.

Future Plans 🚀

Build more of what customers need: This means new features for existing apps, as well as brand new apps. I have two new Zendesk apps planned for release next month.
Optimize prices: I’ll adjust pricing to reflect the value my apps deliver, while ensuring healthy profit margins to fuel growth.

Focus on larger customers: Many of my apps, like Help Center Manager and Analytics, are most valuable for mid-market and enterprise customers.

Invest in marketing and sales: I’ll dedicate more time and resources to marketing, especially SEO, to attract more customers.

Reach out to potential partners: I’ll explore partnerships within the Zendesk ecosystem to find ways to grow together.

Building great products for my customers is still my priority, but I’ve learned that it takes more than that. You need to build a business around your products, and that means marketing, sales, support, and everything else.