faithmotion
New member
Since the beginning of this year, we decided to build a portfolio of small bets (having at least two products among our assets)… after launching our first product (EarlyAccess .to), we made our sale around two months later.
When we soft-launched our second product (liw .bio) on May 6th (2024) and on May 14th, we made our first sale
without a ProductHunt or something! Something I would never imagine, and I wanted to share what I’ve learned (although I’m not a SaaS giant, not an expert yet!).
We were focused on going to market as soon as possible, and shipping features fast, while also sharing or making some noise about it already.
(For context, I’m the technical cofounder).
So, it’s better to invest around 1-2 months on a product and be ready to move on or add another product until you the one that works (or sometimes both of them work!).
You don’t have VC behind you (unless you have!), so why would you want to suffer working on trying hard to validate a product idea in a market? See, it requires a lot of time, energy, and money to validate a business (that’s even why we launched our first product), and you don’t wanna suffer like that, you have life.
Launch a product in a market that’s already established and validated. If there are stronger competitors, that’s great, because it will help you focus only on the features that will make your difference…
For our product, we know the “link-in-bio” market, is very crowded with tools. So, what we had to work on was to focus on pricing (our early pricing: $0, $9/year, and so on) with a cheap yearly subscription, the UI/UX (simpler, with less noise), while having the core features of a typical “link-in-bio”, as our starting point (before adding more features).
For technical founders (with a design taste), I’d say it’s better to build the MVP first before building your “fancy” landing page. This is my first time doing this way since I always start with my “fancy landing page”, which takes longer.
Once you have an MVP up and running, you can start building your landing page (which we’re still improving lol).
Execution is key. Building one or two features per day is enough for you to get things done in a matter of days or weeks (at most 4 weeks?).
This helps you keep up with motivation and energy. And it’s OK to have stubborn bugs sometimes, it’s part of the journey. Trust the process.
Although not a big fan of very cheap products, sometimes it’s necessary to get started with a cheaper product in the market. This can help have your first users try the product and send you feedback to improve your MVP.
And that’s what we did: we came up with the cheap yearly plan as mentioned above to attract… and it worked! Somebody (we don’t even know) purchased (maybe because they wanted to grab their favorite username/handle haha! I don’t know, but they purchased the product!)
Of course, we’re going to increase the price in the coming days. But for the past few days, we wanted to get something that would get us going and motivated about our product. Now, we know we can sell, we’ll move on to the next level.
People will only know about your product if you launch or share something about it. (I’m an introvert, but I’m learning to make things better by becoming vocal about my products, not gonna give up!)
That’s it. That’s the point.
(store connected to Shopify and Amazon, affiliate links, custom themes, etc) and we’re working on sharing more with the public, to get us known, so that people can try our product.
Thanks for reading!
When we soft-launched our second product (liw .bio) on May 6th (2024) and on May 14th, we made our first sale
without a ProductHunt or something! Something I would never imagine, and I wanted to share what I’ve learned (although I’m not a SaaS giant, not an expert yet!). - Never expected this!
We were focused on going to market as soon as possible, and shipping features fast, while also sharing or making some noise about it already.
(For context, I’m the technical cofounder).
- Lessons learned
- Build a “portfolio of small bets”
So, it’s better to invest around 1-2 months on a product and be ready to move on or add another product until you the one that works (or sometimes both of them work!).
Code:
2. Always work on an “already validated” market (competition is great!), if you’re a beginnerYou don’t have VC behind you (unless you have!), so why would you want to suffer working on trying hard to validate a product idea in a market? See, it requires a lot of time, energy, and money to validate a business (that’s even why we launched our first product), and you don’t wanna suffer like that, you have life.
Launch a product in a market that’s already established and validated. If there are stronger competitors, that’s great, because it will help you focus only on the features that will make your difference…
For our product, we know the “link-in-bio” market, is very crowded with tools. So, what we had to work on was to focus on pricing (our early pricing: $0, $9/year, and so on) with a cheap yearly subscription, the UI/UX (simpler, with less noise), while having the core features of a typical “link-in-bio”, as our starting point (before adding more features).
Code:
3. Go from product to landing page, not the other way aroundFor technical founders (with a design taste), I’d say it’s better to build the MVP first before building your “fancy” landing page. This is my first time doing this way since I always start with my “fancy landing page”, which takes longer.
Once you have an MVP up and running, you can start building your landing page (which we’re still improving lol).
Code:
4. Ship fast, but usefullyExecution is key. Building one or two features per day is enough for you to get things done in a matter of days or weeks (at most 4 weeks?).
This helps you keep up with motivation and energy. And it’s OK to have stubborn bugs sometimes, it’s part of the journey. Trust the process.
Code:
5. Start cheap, but increase price laterAlthough not a big fan of very cheap products, sometimes it’s necessary to get started with a cheaper product in the market. This can help have your first users try the product and send you feedback to improve your MVP.
And that’s what we did: we came up with the cheap yearly plan as mentioned above to attract… and it worked! Somebody (we don’t even know) purchased (maybe because they wanted to grab their favorite username/handle haha! I don’t know, but they purchased the product!)
Of course, we’re going to increase the price in the coming days. But for the past few days, we wanted to get something that would get us going and motivated about our product. Now, we know we can sell, we’ll move on to the next level.
Code:
6. Make noisePeople will only know about your product if you launch or share something about it. (I’m an introvert, but I’m learning to make things better by becoming vocal about my products, not gonna give up!)
Code:
7. Keep showing upThat’s it. That’s the point.
- What’s our next step?
(store connected to Shopify and Amazon, affiliate links, custom themes, etc) and we’re working on sharing more with the public, to get us known, so that people can try our product. Thanks for reading!