[HN Gopher] Show HN: Side project passed $2.5k/mo revenue after ...
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Show HN: Side project passed $2.5k/mo revenue after 2 years
(Phoenix and Vue)
Several years ago, I had a client whose salespeople were using
Excel to generate sales proposals. This was inefficient and the
resulting documents looked awful, so I developed a new process for
them using a no-code platform. It featured a web form that was tied
to a workflow engine, and a fancy PDF got emailed to the customer
to sign. When the client loved the solution, I knew I was on to
something. However, the no-code platform wasn't very customizable,
so I decided to rebuild the process as a SaaS product. The client's
CTO wanted in and we became cofounders. Today, we passed the
$2,500/mo. threshold, and couldn't be more excited!
(https://pricetable.io) Things started slow. I wasn't a software
developer by trade, so I was constantly "drinking from the fire
hose." Also, my cofounder and I had disagreements regarding
features, UX, sales strategy... you name it. We never fought, but
initially there was a sense of disconnect. Then one day,
everything clicked. His company started to pilot our product, and
after a few months became our first customer. Receiving feedback
from real users was a breath of fresh air. It was also really eye-
opening to see which assumptions we had made were slam dunks and
which were hilariously wrong! Things might have been easier had I
picked a more mainstream stack like Rails/Django, but once I got up
to speed with Elixir and Vue, development became a Zen-like
experience. Both communities are very welcoming and immensely
helpful. HN has also been an extraordinary source of inspiration;
reading success stories always makes me launch my code editor!
Similarly, hearing from companies that didn't make it helps us keep
our expectations realistic. Now we shift focus to finding new
clients. We have a very solid success story and metrics to back it
up. However, both my partner and I still have day jobs we need the
income from, and the product requires a fairly high-touch sales
approach. Any advice would be appreciated. :)
Author : enraged_camel
Score : 30 points
Date : 2021-04-18 19:51 UTC (3 hours ago)
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| Contrary to another commenter here, I would suggest learning a
| bit about selling to businesses before (or even instead of)
| looking to raise money.
|
| Go on YouTube and watch some MicroConf videos. Most of the most
| popular videos are exactly this theme.
| enraged_camel wrote:
| Thank you for the advice. I will check those out!
|
| For me, the challenge isn't really lack of knowledge of B2B
| sales (I do a fair bit of it in my day job) but rather lack of
| time. Prospecting and qualifying leads tends to be very time-
| consuming, and neither of us can dedicate ourselves to it since
| we both have day jobs. But I think you're right that our focus
| should be to expand our client base a bit more before looking
| to raise money.
| issa wrote:
| It sounds like a good time to raise a bit of money. Don't go
| crazy, but try to get enough of an investment that one or both of
| you can start working full time on the company. Or, if neither of
| you are comfortable with sales, try to bring on a third person
| who is. Congrats and good luck!!
| enraged_camel wrote:
| Thank you! Interestingly enough, our first customer also
| offered to invest in us six months ago. We punted at first, but
| a few weeks ago they brought it up again unprompted, so I think
| they are serious. I'm just hesitant because I'm not sure how it
| would work to have a customer also be a shareholder. What are
| your thoughts?
| buildstatements wrote:
| Yeh try TinySeed - the help is likely more valuable than the
| money, which in itself likely helps a great deal.
| meritt wrote:
| There are hundreds of invoicing/billing platforms that exist.
| That's going to be a difficult raise.
| uh_uh wrote:
| May I ask how did you get the consulting gig in the first place?
| enraged_camel wrote:
| Hey! So the consulting gig is my day job. I've been working
| with no-code platforms for more than a decade, and this client
| was for one of the projects assigned to me. I'm grateful
| because consulting is a really good way to look for new ideas
| in the marketplace since you're always interfacing with
| customers and talking about their issues, sometimes in great
| detail. PriceTable was born out of one such project.
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