Nathan Barry, ConvertKit, $600k/month
What is the product?
Email marketing tool for bloggers and content creators.
What is its current revenue?
5k to $600k a month in 2 years.
What is the business model?
Subscription.
How did the founder come up with the idea?
- Nathan used to design and write books on iOS and web app.
- Was expert on email marketing and had built and grew his personal audience throughout the year.
- One day he blogged about starting a SaaS company but had no idea to work on. Just basically set a public goal to hold accountability.
- Came up with an idea to interview businesses in depth, tried to see what problems they were facing. But then decided to stay true to his problems - building a service that was better than Mailchimp.
How did they know it was the right one?
- Bunch of similar products were out there and had huge market shares. Still went for it because it showed there were needs and still rooms for improvements.
What did it take to get the initial product out the door?
- Knew about 10 people who were good at email marketing. Asked them about their frustrations, tried to understand their why, asked if they would pay for a solution.
- Came back after a month with a MVP and asked to buy it - started to get real feedbacks, though only made 1 purchase though they all said yes.
How did they get their first paying customers?
- Through direct contact as above.
- Also launch pre-sale programs.
References:
Tagged: #early-days, #indiehackers