@futuretrainee Yw good luck 
Pivoted, got our first paying customer... now what??
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futuretrainee
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kreative333
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@futuretrainee make them really happy, learn every possible aspect on how they're using your product, and why.
then ask yourself where will you find people like them.
then ask yourself where will you find people like them.
futuretrainee
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@kreative333 have really started to focus on the customer we have onboard atm! seeing some new things they want developed
kreative333
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@futuretrainee you have something that most startups don't: a customer
@futuretrainee You have some solid gold in the responses, but I would ask a few caveats to many of them.
1) How scalable are you (I assume that it's just you)? Can you manage infrastructure and resolve bugs all while managing customer relationship and scaling the business?
2) How did you identify pricing and are you sure that the model is sound? Leaving money on the table is much less problematic than not covering your basic capital expenditures - less than ideal to leave money on the table, sure, but if your CapEx are covered, you're starting to eat away at operational expenditures, which is a healthy place to be right out of the gate.
2.1) Can you augment the pricing model to encourage longer commitments with upfront cash infusions?
3) Are you setup in such a way that potential users can find you organically? Do you have basic SEO?
4) How does organic traffic sign up? Is it a manual process on your end and, if so, does it need to be or can you remove that hurdle? Is it the type of product that you can give a free trial for?
Personally, and without knowing specifics of your situation, I would not quit my current job until the business is already scaling enough to be able to get further funding rounds or obtain a line of credit from a bank. I would probably seek high equity, low/no pay, part time (for now) partners to be "founders" who can help to drive your current needs. Likely, that's another engineer, largely because they can drive features and fixes while you focus on whatever fire is under your ass that day and partially because they can do things like monitor DataDog/Sematext to get ahead of any problems that might make you lose your current customer. In addition, a senior product engineer _should_ be able to sit in meetings with the customer and iron out requirements for new features and fixes to existing ones without you needing to explicitly be present.
From a marketing side, I would let things sail for a bit, honestly. Work closely with the client you have and make sure that you're continuing to meet expectations, ideally, exceeding them. At the same time, see if you can start conversations up with some of the old customers that left - not because you're trying to sell them anything, but because you have pivoted and are doing market research, hoping to get feedback from people who have seen the old product and the new. Never, and I mean _never_, mention signing them up or pricing or anything - these are just research convos until _they_ ask _you_ if it would be possible to have a trial license or whatever. Keep in mind that these are people who potentially feel like "you" burned them before, so there's a fragile enough relationship without you pressuring them to buy.
When you start to feel like it's the right time (it could be that you're seeing people in your software a meaningful amount or you've added enough features and smoothed enough rough edges that it doesn't feel like an MVP), see if any of your users would be willing to share their experience with their network. Word of mouth is incredibly valuable and you'll likely have a solid reach to your ICP without even knowing who they are and literally zero marketing spend.
Something that I've seen kill a number of businesses is premature scaling, which is ironic because scaling to slowly is also a pretty solid killer. How can you minimize spend (aka maximize runway) while keeping a sustainable growth rate?
1) How scalable are you (I assume that it's just you)? Can you manage infrastructure and resolve bugs all while managing customer relationship and scaling the business?
2) How did you identify pricing and are you sure that the model is sound? Leaving money on the table is much less problematic than not covering your basic capital expenditures - less than ideal to leave money on the table, sure, but if your CapEx are covered, you're starting to eat away at operational expenditures, which is a healthy place to be right out of the gate.
2.1) Can you augment the pricing model to encourage longer commitments with upfront cash infusions?
3) Are you setup in such a way that potential users can find you organically? Do you have basic SEO?
4) How does organic traffic sign up? Is it a manual process on your end and, if so, does it need to be or can you remove that hurdle? Is it the type of product that you can give a free trial for?
Personally, and without knowing specifics of your situation, I would not quit my current job until the business is already scaling enough to be able to get further funding rounds or obtain a line of credit from a bank. I would probably seek high equity, low/no pay, part time (for now) partners to be "founders" who can help to drive your current needs. Likely, that's another engineer, largely because they can drive features and fixes while you focus on whatever fire is under your ass that day and partially because they can do things like monitor DataDog/Sematext to get ahead of any problems that might make you lose your current customer. In addition, a senior product engineer _should_ be able to sit in meetings with the customer and iron out requirements for new features and fixes to existing ones without you needing to explicitly be present.
From a marketing side, I would let things sail for a bit, honestly. Work closely with the client you have and make sure that you're continuing to meet expectations, ideally, exceeding them. At the same time, see if you can start conversations up with some of the old customers that left - not because you're trying to sell them anything, but because you have pivoted and are doing market research, hoping to get feedback from people who have seen the old product and the new. Never, and I mean _never_, mention signing them up or pricing or anything - these are just research convos until _they_ ask _you_ if it would be possible to have a trial license or whatever. Keep in mind that these are people who potentially feel like "you" burned them before, so there's a fragile enough relationship without you pressuring them to buy.
When you start to feel like it's the right time (it could be that you're seeing people in your software a meaningful amount or you've added enough features and smoothed enough rough edges that it doesn't feel like an MVP), see if any of your users would be willing to share their experience with their network. Word of mouth is incredibly valuable and you'll likely have a solid reach to your ICP without even knowing who they are and literally zero marketing spend.
Something that I've seen kill a number of businesses is premature scaling, which is ironic because scaling to slowly is also a pretty solid killer. How can you minimize spend (aka maximize runway) while keeping a sustainable growth rate?
futuretrainee
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@jordanh51 Damn thank you for taking the time to come up with such a thorough response!
Scalable - just me atm, but getting tough to manage everything rn while building new features
Pricing - kinda just guessed what people would pay for something like this tbh
Long term commitment - just talked to a customer who might come on with an annual contract at a really nice rate ($200/m).
SEO - Worked on SEO for a bit but not ranking for many keywords atm. Will still need to figure this out.
Signup - It's manual rn, but I can flip the switch at anytime and it's all automatic with onboarding, but just scared before getting the kinks out.
Other people - looking into getting some of my friends involved to help out
Case studies - actually getting an interview with our customer to get a case study done on how we are replacing another service they were using previously
Old customers - good idea about not trying to sell them, just reach out... will ping them and see what they have been up to
Honestly when I posted this I didn't expect many responses, but this has been super cool because people seem to really want to help. Thank you! Will make updates as new things develop (hopefully this new annual contract closes)!
Scalable - just me atm, but getting tough to manage everything rn while building new features
Pricing - kinda just guessed what people would pay for something like this tbh
Long term commitment - just talked to a customer who might come on with an annual contract at a really nice rate ($200/m).
SEO - Worked on SEO for a bit but not ranking for many keywords atm. Will still need to figure this out.
Signup - It's manual rn, but I can flip the switch at anytime and it's all automatic with onboarding, but just scared before getting the kinks out.
Other people - looking into getting some of my friends involved to help out
Case studies - actually getting an interview with our customer to get a case study done on how we are replacing another service they were using previously
Old customers - good idea about not trying to sell them, just reach out... will ping them and see what they have been up to
Honestly when I posted this I didn't expect many responses, but this has been super cool because people seem to really want to help. Thank you! Will make updates as new things develop (hopefully this new annual contract closes)!
aussiebanana
New member
@futuretrainee You've done the hard part, congrats!
Now, you need to create ICPs, create a solid GTM strategy, figure out customer acquisition channels and cost, prepare investor documents (pitch decks, financial modeling, etc) and extend your traction. At the same time, keep networking with potential investors and never miss a chance to exhibit where you can.
Hmu if you want to discuss it further.
Now, you need to create ICPs, create a solid GTM strategy, figure out customer acquisition channels and cost, prepare investor documents (pitch decks, financial modeling, etc) and extend your traction. At the same time, keep networking with potential investors and never miss a chance to exhibit where you can.
Hmu if you want to discuss it further.
futuretrainee
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@aussiebanana One thing you mentioned that I haven't done or heard anyone mention yet is the pitch decks. Do you know any good resources to help with creating good decks?
aussiebanana
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@futuretrainee I'd need to know your market or idea space to advise you better.
There are free resources available on platforms like SlideShare which you can use to create one for yourself. But these free tools are extremely limited.
If you have the content sorted for every slide, you can hire someone from Upwork or Fiverr to design it.
I recently created one. I can share it if you want for reference.
There are free resources available on platforms like SlideShare which you can use to create one for yourself. But these free tools are extremely limited.
If you have the content sorted for every slide, you can hire someone from Upwork or Fiverr to design it.
I recently created one. I can share it if you want for reference.
@aussiebanana Only if they want to raise investor funding, its a valid choice not to right?
futuretrainee
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aussiebanana
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@futuretrainee How much are we talking about?
futuretrainee
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@aussiebanana Like how much we would need?
aussiebanana
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@futuretrainee Yes
futuretrainee
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@aussiebanana Just enough to quit my job and hire out another dev + sales, so for our burn I’d say $250,000 usd
aussiebanana
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@futuretrainee Do you have a rough idea of the customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, and other metrics in your niche?
futuretrainee
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@aussiebanana No ideas tbh I’d have to imagine for our niche that out customer lifetime value would be pretty high because it’s like a haircut, once you find a good one you don’t really want to change
I’d have to imagine for our niche that out customer lifetime value would be pretty high because it’s like a haircut, once you find a good one you don’t really want to changeaussiebanana
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@futuretrainee Oh. What's your subscription cost?
aussiebanana
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@futuretrainee Are you into compliance or something?