Hello! I'm Elias and I do case studies analyzing successful startups and solopreneurs. This week I wanted to share with you the summarized version of this case study because I find it very inspiring.
The in-depth version of the case study was originally posted here.
This post will be about Pallyy (previously ShareMyInsights), a social media management SaaS founded by Tim Bennetto back in 2019. Pallyy was bootstrapped by Tim as a solopreneur, by the time I am writing this Pally is making around $85k a month.
How did the founder come up with the idea.
Before starting Pallyy, Tim launched an app he eventually sold for $10,000, which was built by an external company. Despite this, he realized he needed to learn to code for future projects. In 2019, after some unremarkable projects, he founded ShareMyInsights (now Pallyy), an Instagram Analytics platform.
The only reason Tim started this business was to create a better lifestyle and make money. He chose an Analytics Platform because, at that moment, this type of SaaS was booming.
The sole distinction between Pallyy and the existing SaaS was a feature that enables you to share analytics with others.
What challenges did the founder face.
The launch initially failed as Tim focused solely on product development, neglecting marketing. Surprisingly, the first customers arrived unexpectedly securing its first 100 customers at $5 per month.
Over the following two years, growth stagnated at $1.3k MRR with high churn rates. Tim identified two key issues:
No one was using the "sharing" feature
User demand for post scheduling.
He consequently removed the "sharing" feature and prioritized building the scheduling feature. These adjustments resulted in a 100% MRR increase (around $2.5k MRR) and stabilized the churn rate.
Strategies that made the project successful.
After achieving Product-Market Fit, Tim focused on scaling the project. This involved rebranding from "ShareMyInsights' ' to "Pallyy" opting for a short, affordable, and versatile name and a new logo that cost him $1,500 (yes you read it right $1.5k). On top of that, he decided to focus on Social media agencies as a niche market to stand out from the competition.
To market Pallyy effectively, Tim reached out to social media managers and agencies on Instagram, ran ads on Instagram and Google (with limited success due to budget constraints), hired a blog writer to optimize SEO (a pivotal moment for Pallyy), and implemented an affiliate program. Additionally, he raised the subscription price by $3.
These efforts led to a 10x growth the following year.
Lessons: successes and mistakes.
Maintain vision and consistency. Stick to your plan, even amidst setbacks.
Adapt and pivot when necessary. Understand your customers and track product analytics.
Focus on a niche to validate your product before expanding, especially in a competitive market.
Avoid overspending on non-essentials like a $1,500 logo. Use cost-effective options like Canva or Fiverr.
Ensure proper marketing efforts. A great product won't succeed if no one knows about it.
Choose a flexible and creative business name and branding to avoid limiting growth potential.
How could you replicate this idea step-by-step.
Firstly, differentiate yourself from Pallyy and similar tools by considering two approaches:
Feel free to comment if you have any questions, and let me know which similar ideas you'd like me to analyze.
The in-depth version of the case study was originally posted here.
This post will be about Pallyy (previously ShareMyInsights), a social media management SaaS founded by Tim Bennetto back in 2019. Pallyy was bootstrapped by Tim as a solopreneur, by the time I am writing this Pally is making around $85k a month.
How did the founder come up with the idea.
Before starting Pallyy, Tim launched an app he eventually sold for $10,000, which was built by an external company. Despite this, he realized he needed to learn to code for future projects. In 2019, after some unremarkable projects, he founded ShareMyInsights (now Pallyy), an Instagram Analytics platform.
The only reason Tim started this business was to create a better lifestyle and make money. He chose an Analytics Platform because, at that moment, this type of SaaS was booming.
The sole distinction between Pallyy and the existing SaaS was a feature that enables you to share analytics with others.
What challenges did the founder face.
The launch initially failed as Tim focused solely on product development, neglecting marketing. Surprisingly, the first customers arrived unexpectedly securing its first 100 customers at $5 per month.
Over the following two years, growth stagnated at $1.3k MRR with high churn rates. Tim identified two key issues:
No one was using the "sharing" feature
User demand for post scheduling.
He consequently removed the "sharing" feature and prioritized building the scheduling feature. These adjustments resulted in a 100% MRR increase (around $2.5k MRR) and stabilized the churn rate.
Strategies that made the project successful.
After achieving Product-Market Fit, Tim focused on scaling the project. This involved rebranding from "ShareMyInsights' ' to "Pallyy" opting for a short, affordable, and versatile name and a new logo that cost him $1,500 (yes you read it right $1.5k). On top of that, he decided to focus on Social media agencies as a niche market to stand out from the competition.
To market Pallyy effectively, Tim reached out to social media managers and agencies on Instagram, ran ads on Instagram and Google (with limited success due to budget constraints), hired a blog writer to optimize SEO (a pivotal moment for Pallyy), and implemented an affiliate program. Additionally, he raised the subscription price by $3.
These efforts led to a 10x growth the following year.
Lessons: successes and mistakes.
Maintain vision and consistency. Stick to your plan, even amidst setbacks. Adapt and pivot when necessary. Understand your customers and track product analytics. Focus on a niche to validate your product before expanding, especially in a competitive market. Avoid overspending on non-essentials like a $1,500 logo. Use cost-effective options like Canva or Fiverr. Ensure proper marketing efforts. A great product won't succeed if no one knows about it. Choose a flexible and creative business name and branding to avoid limiting growth potential.How could you replicate this idea step-by-step.
Firstly, differentiate yourself from Pallyy and similar tools by considering two approaches:
- Engage with potential users via LinkedIn or email to understand their unmet needs. Additionally, analyze reviews of existing tools to identify common problems. When developing your MVP, prioritize solving issues faced by many customers, not just a few.
- Explore creating a product similar to Pallyy but tailored for a different niche. Ensure to customize the tool to address the specific needs of this new user subset.
- If you know how to code, select your tech stack and begin developing your MVP. For example, Pallyy uses MongoDB for the database, Node.js/Express for the server, and Vue/Nuxt for the front-end.
- If you lack coding skills, you can opt for NoCode or pre-built code options:
- Start by signing up for an account on Bubble and acquaint yourself with the platform's tutorials.
- Create a database for scheduling information and design user interfaces for key functions such as post creation and automation setup.
- Utilize Bubble's visual workflows to define logic, integrating with social media platforms through APIs or built-in tools.
- Implement automation for scheduling and posting content, and include basic analytics.
- Ensure responsive design for different devices.
- Share the MVP with a small user group for feedback, iterate based on received feedback, and finally deploy the MVP using Bubble's deployment options.
Feel free to comment if you have any questions, and let me know which similar ideas you'd like me to analyze.
