Years of hard work, struggle, and pain.
20+ failed projects 😭

This one was different.

Built the first version in a few days, using tools I already knew (React, Node JS, Postgres, OpenAI, etc.).
No fancy architecture. No perfection. Just shipping.

What finally worked (with real numbers):
Solve one painful problem.
Not a cool idea - a painful one.
I noticed founders were spending 10–15 hours/week manually trying to understand users, leads, and feedback. Most still guessed wrong.

Use tools you already know.
I stopped tool-hopping.
Saved weeks by reusing my existing stack.
Customers never asked what I built it with - they only cared that it worked.

Start with an MVP (very small).
The MVP had 1 core feature. That’s it.
No dashboards, no settings, no “nice to haves”.
First version was honestly a bit ugly.

Validate fast or kill it.

Within the first 7 days:

• Shared it on Reddit, X, and niche founder groups
• Replied to posts complaining about competitors
• Sent ~30 DMs

Result:

• A few ignored it
• Some gave brutal feedback
• Real people paid → strongest signal possible

Fail fast, don’t over-engineer.
If nobody pays, move on.
Scalability doesn’t matter when you have 0 users.

Data > feelings.
I tracked:

• Who came back
• Who paid
• What feature they actually used

80% of usage came from 20% of features - everything else was noise.

Iterate quickly.
Weekly improvements based on feedback.
Small changes, compounding results.

Marketing is mandatory.
Posting consistently + replying where pain already exists brought in more users than “launching” ever did.

Many small bets > one big dream.
Shipping often reduced emotional attachment - which made decisions clearer.

The simple playbook that worked:

1. Problem
   Scratch your own itch.
   Read 1-star reviews.
   Lurk where your users complain.
2. MVP
   Set a deadline (1 day or 1 week).
   If it feels unfinished, good.
3. Validation
   Payment > praise.
   Usage > likes.
   Silence = move on.
4. SEO (long game)
   Slow, boring, effective.
   2 out of my last 3 projects now get steady inbound traffic from it.

This isn’t magic.
It’s just repetition, data, and being honest with yourself.

If you’re on your 10th+ failed idea - you’re probably closer than you think.

I'm going to tell you something nobody else will:

Your SaaS will probably fail.

Not because you're not smart enough. Not because your idea is bad. Not because you're not working hard enough.

It'll fail because the math doesn't work.

And once you accept this, you can actually succeed.

Let's look at the numbers:

• 90% of SaaS startups fail within 3 years
• Of the 10% that survive, most are zombies ($3-10k MRR)
• Of those, 1% hit the "ramen profitable" milestone
• 0.1% become actual businesses

If you're building a SaaS right now, you have a 1 in 1,000 chance of succeeding.

Those are lottery odds.

But here's the thing nobody tells you:

You're playing the wrong game.

There are two types of SaaS builders:

Type 1: The VC Path

• Build for scale
• Raise funding
• Burn money on growth
• Exit or die
• 0.01% succeed

Type 2: The Indie Path

• Build for profit
• Bootstrap from day 1
• Grow slowly
• Keep what you make
• 15% succeed

Most people aim for Type 1.

Most people should be Type 2.

The difference?

Type 1 wants to build a unicorn. Type 2 wants to build a life.

[THE JOURNEY - Failure Cascade]

I've built 4 failed SaaS products.

Let me show you the carnage:

SaaS #1: "The Smart CRM"

• Idea: Notion-based CRM for solopreneurs
• Built: 3 months
• Launched: October 2023
• Revenue: $387 total
• Shut down: January 2024
• Lost: $4,800 in time + $1,200 in tools

Why it failed: Solved a problem nobody actually had

SaaS #2: "The Email Assistant"

• Idea: AI that writes cold emails
• Built: 2 months
• Launched: March 2024
• Revenue: $1,240 total
• Shut down: May 2024
• Lost: $3,200 in time + $890 in API costs

Why it failed: Too many free alternatives

SaaS #3: "The Content Scheduler"

• Idea: Auto-post to multiple platforms
• Built: 4 months
• Launched: July 2024
• Revenue: $2,100 total
• Still "running" but dead
• Lost: $6,400 in time + $2,300 in tools

Why it failed: Buffer and Hootsuite exist

SaaS #4: "The Meeting Recorder"

• Idea: Record + transcribe + summarize meetings
• Built: 6 months
• Never launched
• Lost: $9,600 in time + $3,400 in development

Why it failed: Otter. ai crushed me before I shipped

Total damage:

• Money: $27,990
• Time: 15 months
• Emotional toll: Immeasurable

[THE REALIZATION - The Pivot]

After $28k and 15 months of failure, I had a breakdown.

Called my dad. Cried. Asked if I should just get a job.

He said something that changed everything:

"You're not failing at building a SaaS. You're failing at selling."

What he meant:

Every product I built was FINE.

The tech worked. The UI was decent.

But I never validated that people would PAY for it.

I was building and HOPING someone would buy.

Instead of selling and THEN building.

[COGNITIVE DISSONANCE - The Truth]

Here's the uncomfortable truth about SaaS:

The product is 10% of success. Distribution is 90%.

If you can't:

• Get traffic
• Convert visitors
• Retain customers
• Charge enough to survive

...then it doesn't matter how good your product is.

Most failed SaaS products are good products with no distribution.

So I tried something different.

Instead of building a SaaS, I built a digital product.

Specifically: Automation templates.

The Difference:

SaaS Model:

• Monthly recurring revenue
• Ongoing support required
• Infrastructure costs
• Churn is constant anxiety
• Need scale to survive

Digital Product Model:

• One-time purchase
• Minimal support
• No infrastructure
• No churn
• Profitable at small scale

What I Built:

Notion dashboards + n8n automation workflows.

The Bundle:

• Command center (Notion template)
• 3 AI agents (n8n JSONs)
• Setup guides (videos)
• Prompt library (500+ prompts)

Price: $297 one-time.

Results (3 months):

• 143 sales
• $42,471 revenue
• ~4 hours/week support time
• Zero infrastructure costs

Profit margin: ~92%

Here's what I actually think:

Most people shouldn't build SaaS.

They should build digital products that LOOK like SaaS but don't have the downsides.

What I mean:

Instead of building a platform, build a template. Instead of charging monthly, charge once. Instead of scaling infrastructure, sell files.

The Benefits:

• Build once, sell forever
• No support tickets at 3 AM
• No server costs
• No churn anxiety
• Immediate profit

If you want to build something profitable (not scalable):

Step 1: Solve Your Own Problem

Build automation/systems/templates that save you 10+ hours/week.

Use it yourself for 30 days.

Step 2: Package It

Turn it into:

• Notion templates
• n8n workflows
• Figma kits
• Spreadsheet systems
• Code snippets

Whatever format makes sense.

Step 3: Document It

Write the setup guide. Record the video walkthrough. Make it plug-and-play.

Step 4: Sell Before You Scale

Get 10 sales manually.

Don't build infrastructure. Don't raise money. Don't hire a team.

Just sell it.

Step 5: If It Works, Then Scale

Only AFTER you've proven people will pay should you consider:

• Turning it into a SaaS
• Building a team
• Scaling infrastructure

To make $10k/month:

SaaS Path:

• Need 1,000 customers at $10/month
• Or 100 customers at $100/month
• Churn rate: 5-10%/month
• Need constant new customer acquisition

Digital Product Path:

• Need 34 sales at $297
• No churn (one-time purchase)
• Each sale is PURE profit after costs

Which sounds easier?

I'm still not "successful."

$42k in 3 months sounds great until you realize:

• I worked on this for 15 months (if you count the failures)
• My "hourly rate" is still probably $25-30
• I have no idea if this will work next month

Build a life, not an empire.

This guy built 5 boring apps and makes $200k/month.

Meet Mike from Australia. Zero VC funding. Smallest team possible. Five SaaS apps.

His secret? He refuses to build anything new.

His exact words:

"Pick an idea that's been done before. New ideas are risky."

While you're trying to disrupt industries, he's copying what works and doing it better.

- Social media aggregator.
- Customer feedback tool.
- Digital signage.
- Onboarding tours.

Boring? Yes.
Profitable? $200k/month.

Here's his brutal rule:
"We will NEVER go after an AI-focused business."

• No platform risk.
• No dependence on APIs he doesn't control.
• No praying OpenAI doesn't kill his business overnight.
• Just boring, profitable software.

His 10-step playbook is stupidly simple:

• Copy an idea that already works
• Build basic MVP
• Sell lifetime deals for $59-100
• Raise $100k from LTDs (pre-revenue)
• Use that cash to write SEO content for 2 years
• Launch on AppSumo
• Get reviews on G2/TrustPilot
• Switch to MRR
• Print money

He's done this 3 times. About to do it twice more.

Zero failures.

Meanwhile, you're:

- Pitching VCs on "the Uber of X"
- Building features nobody asked for
- Chasing trends that'll be dead in 6 months
- Wondering why you're still at $0 MRR

The uncomfortable truth?

Boring wins. Copying wins. Execution wins.

Your "revolutionary idea" loses.

Lately, I’ve been seeing the same type of content everywhere:

“$10k MRR in 3 weeks”

“$1M in 90 days”

“Bootstrapped to $100k/month overnight”

And for a while, I believed it. I thought maybe I was just behind.

But the more I dug in, the more I realized most of these stories are exaggerated, cherry picked, or just plain fiction. They make for great Twitter threads, but they’re outliers at best.

Look at the wave of “AI powered” SaaS launches right now — chatbots, tools for tools, endless directories no one asked for. Ninety percent of them won’t exist in six months.

Sure, you can pay an agency to build you a polished app fast. But once they hand it over, you’re on your own — no distribution strategy, no marketing plan, no guidance on how to get actual paying users. It’s like being given a Formula 1 car without ever learning how to drive.

We’ve seen this hype cycle before — crypto, NFTs, dropshipping, and now AI. New name, same trap. And founders keep getting pulled in by the same “quick win” promise.

I’ve been building AI solutions for big tech as a data scientist for 5 years. Last year, I launched my own product, a Twitter growth app, and failed miserably. When I spoke to people who had actually built sustainable businesses, they didn’t ask me about my code. They asked

“How are you selling”

“Who’s your ICP”

“What’s your free value hook”

I had no good answers.

Yes, you can hit a decent MRR in 6 to 12 months if you’ve got distribution experience. But it’s not as common as social media makes it look. And behind every “overnight success” is usually years of grinding, like Lovable’s $200M fundraise, built on seven years of work no one saw.

Now, when I build, I think in terms of systems, not just code. I use n8n to automate operations, Trupeer to create product demos, Notion for knowledge sharing, HubSpot for CRM, and Zapier to stitch it all together. Tools are multipliers, but only if you have a real problem to solve.

If you want something that lasts, start here

Work on problems you understand deeply (founder market fit)

Build on your unique skills and experience

Be honest, does the world actually need what you’re making

Learn sales, distribution, and communication as seriously as you learn code

Entrepreneurship isn’t a viral post or a cool AI demo. It’s slow, intentional, often boring work. The kind that builds expertise, trust, and genuine value long before monetization kicks in.

So ask yourself

What am I truly great at

What problems do I understand better than most

Can I pick myself up after I fail

Stop building just to build. Start building because it matters to you and because it solves something real.

That’s how businesses are actually built.

After 3 years of building and almost $500k in funding from some big name VCs, and $50k of my own cash, I’ve officially shut down my SaaS startup. It hurts like none other — but it was time.

We set out to build an AI teleprompter and testimonial video platform to help small businesses and brands capture better video content from their real customers.

Think: browser-based recording, a built-in script assistant powered by AI, auto-embeds for reviews on your site, and a slick interface built for non-technical users.

We launched, iterated fast, got real (free) users, had strong design, and solved a real pain point. But despite dozens of conversations, cold outreach, landing pages, and a polished MVP, we struggled to find true traction. No channel gave us repeatable, scalable growth.

It felt like we were selling a vitamin people would take free, but not a painkiller they'd pay for.

Under the hood, a bigger problem was brewing: my technical co-founder was slowly checking out. He stopped communicating (would go on vacation without updating me), taking forever to fix bugs, and most problematic — building features completely different than customers asked for, or the wireframes I'd created based on those discovery calls.

I later would find out he had been vibe coding almost the majority of our time working together, and given it was relatively unheard of in the time of hiring him, he was able to fool the rest of the team that he was a cracked developer — showing us wild crazy builds during the interviews.

Turns out, he'd actually used Cursor to build those, and actually lacked many of the skills to build what we needed, and hence features got built wildly different than requested.

Given I'd already invested in him (both a six-figure salary + equity), I tried to coach him, reason with him, structure the workflow, but nothing stuck. I talked with our investors, and they concluded we had no choice but to terminate him.

Our original contractors (who were great, and built our proprietary auto-editing back-end) had also moved on to full-time jobs that paid 5x more than we could afford, so hiring them wasn't an option.

I kept going solo for several months pitching customers, redesigning things, exploring B2B licensing, even learning to vibe code myself — but eventually realized I was pouring time and money into something with no realistic escape velocity.

We’re now trying to sell the tech (or license the IP) — but, as many of you know, a no-revenue SaaS without a technical team doesn’t get much attention. If anyone’s interested in a headless video recording platform with automatic editing & testimonial embeds, feel free to DM me.

I’ve learned more in the last 3 years than I ever did in school — about product, co-founder dynamics, psychology, customer discovery, vibe coding, and the emotional cost of waiting too long to quit.

Company has 15 employees and 12 paying customers. Revenue maybe $8k/month. CEO goes we need to implement Salesforce for our CRM. I'm like why? You have 12 customers, you could manage them with a notebook. But no. They spend 3 months evaluating enterprise platforms, hire implementation consultants, train the whole team on software that has 400 features they'll never use.

Six months later they're paying $3,600/year for something that a $15/month tool would've handled perfectly.

Real example from last year marketing agency, 8 employees, maybe 20 active clients.

They needed enterprise project management software. Looked at Monday, Asana Business, even considered custom development. I asked what's wrong with a shared Google sheet?

"We need something scalable! Professional! Enterprise-grade!" Enterprise-grade for 20 projects? Really?

They spent $8k on software licensing and setup. I checked back 6 months later - they were using maybe 10% of the features and half the team had gone back to email for project updates.

Meanwhile their competitor manages 50+ clients with Trello and seems way more organized. The pattern is always the same

Startup sees successful big company using Enterprise Thing Assumes Enterprise Thing is why big company succeeded Buys Enterprise Thing despite being 1/100th the size Discovers Enterprise Thing is overkill and confusing Goes back to simple tools but keeps paying for Enterprise Thing

It's like a 5-person company buying an 18-wheeler to deliver pizza. The psychology is weird too. Simple tools feel unprofessional even when they work perfectly. Google Sheets = amateur Salesforce = serious business. But Google Sheets might actually be better for a 12-customer company. Easier to use, faster to set up, everyone already knows how it works.

I learned this the hard way with clients' businesses. They try to use professional tools from day one. HubSpot for 3 leads per month. Slack for a 2-person team. Advanced analytics for a website with 100 monthly visitors. They spend more time configuring software than talking to actual customers.

Now I tell early-stage companies start with the simplest tool that works, upgrade only when you're actually hitting limits. Need customer tracking? Start with Google Sheets Need project management? Try Trello first Need team communication? Maybe just text each other

Boring advice but it works. Save the enterprise stuff for when you're actually enterprise-sized.

Here's my rule: if your monthly software costs are higher than your monthly revenue, you're doing it wrong. Most startups could run their entire operation with $200/month in tools. Instead they're spending $2,000/month trying to look like Google.

Don't do it!

When I launched my product this week, I made a decision that turned heads—and not in a good way.

A $5 lifetime license for an app that could easily charge a monthly subscription? People called it reckless, unsustainable, and flat-out stupid. But here’s the thing: it worked.

Within days, I hit my 50-user cap. My inbox overflowed with feedback, and word-of-mouth spread like wildfire. That $5 price point wasn’t just a deal—it was the start of something bigger.

Now, as I’ve raised the price to $12 lifetime for the next 50 users, I want to break down why this bold strategy paid off, what I learned from the skeptics, and how it’s shaping the future of my app.

1. Speed Over Perfection

I had zero email lists, no following, and an app hot off the dev press. The $5 offer wasn’t just about affordability; it was about momentum. For the price of a coffee, I got 50 users in days. And these weren’t just any users—they were engaged, vocal, and passionate about improving the product.

2. Instant Community

People who bought in at $5 became more than customers—they became fans. They shared feedback, reported bugs, and even became unofficial ambassadors. They had skin in the game, and it showed. Every feature improvement since launch has been shaped by them.

3. Word-of-Mouth Marketing FTW

When you charge $5, people talk. “Wait, you’re selling this for how much?!” Reddit, Twitter, even DMs—I watched as my users did my marketing for me. The low price created a sense of exclusivity, like they were getting in on the ground floor of something big.

If you’re curious, the app is called Fyenance—a personal finance manager built to be simple, affordable, and effective. 🧘💰

The Next Chapter: Closing the Value Gap for Next 50

After much (much much much) feedback, I capped the $5 lifetime licenses at 50 users. For the next wave of adopters, the price is $12 lifetime, still an absurd deal if you ask me.

The decision to raise the price reflects the app’s growing value and the incredible feedback from the first 50 users. This price is locked in for the next 50 users, after which it will increase again as the app continues to evolve.

If you’ve been on the fence, now’s the time to jump in and get involved! 🫡

But What About the Haters?

Oh, they came out swinging.

• “You’re devaluing your app.” Maybe. But here’s the thing: the value of software isn’t just the price tag—it’s the user base, the feedback loop, and the brand trust you build. And $5 achieved all of that, fast.
• “It’s unsustainable!” Sure, $5 isn’t a long-term revenue plan. But it was never meant to be. It was an onboarding strategy. Now that I’ve hit my 50-user cap, I can adjust pricing with confidence, knowing the app has been battle-tested.
• “Only freeloaders will buy!” Wrong. My $5 users are some of the most engaged and helpful customers I’ve ever had. They care deeply about the app’s success, and their feedback has been invaluable.

Why It Worked

Selling at $5 worked because it created a story—a reason for people to click, share, and buy. It wasn’t just a deal; it was a conversation starter. And the numbers back it up:

• 50 licenses sold in less than a week at $5
• 90% of users provided feedback
• 3 feature ideas directly from early adopters now in development

What’s Next

Now that the $5 era is over, $12 is available for the next 50 users. It’s still a steal, and this pricing may be a rare find as the app grows. I’m also considering an upsell premium subscription for power users in the future and planning exciting updates to keep the community engaged.

For fellow SaaS founders, here’s the takeaway: Don’t be afraid to experiment. Pricing isn’t permanent. Sometimes you have to zig when the market zags.

If you’re on the fence about bold pricing strategies, let me know your thoughts. Would love to hear what’s worked (or not worked) for you. 

In 2019 I quit my comfy corporate job build an app to find healthy food whilst you're on the go. The idea was simple - A list of healthy food choices around you, wherever you are in the world. Think Deliveroo or Uber Eats but with only healthy choices.

We spent the first 24 months building the app in stealth. We raised investment off of an MVP (which we didn't release and only showed investors). We raised at a valuation of approx $1 million. I know this is small compared to most apps but to us this was huge. We celebrated like crazy then immediately got building our dream app.

The issue was it was our dream app. Not our (future) users. We built completely in stealth not showing a single user. Cut to one year later and we finally release the app. We have a launch party with champagne, branded cakes, you name it.

Our revenue that release day? $0.

Our revenue that week? $0.00

The issue? We had built an app that no one wanted apart from us. We wanted to be able to eat healthy food on the go to fit around our lifestyle, but what we found is that our customers wanted more structure and routine to their diets.

Here's how you can avoid making the same mistake:

• Start a mini community of users from day 1 and let them shape the product (I use WhatsApp)
• Become obsessed with finding customer pain points (I use Problem Perception)
• Have analytics everywhere in the app to monitor which features are useless (I use firebase analytics)
• Release fast and release early, then track crashes/bugs (I use Sentry)

Hope this helps 🙏

Nearly 18 years ago, I started building Jotform. Today, Jotform serves over 25 million users worldwide, but the journey to the first 1,000 users saw the biggest failures and the most valuable lessons. I wanted to share what I learned:

1. Tap into your network first

When I launched Jotform, I didn’t have a huge marketing budget. Instead, I reached out to friends, family, and colleagues. I asked them to try my product and share their honest feedback. This initial group helped me refine the product and gave me the confidence that I was on the right track. Your network is your first circle of trust. Don’t hesitate to use it.

2. Be active in online communities

Online communities are goldmines for early-stage SaaS products. I spent countless hours engaging in forums and discussion boards. Today, platforms like Reddit, Indie Hackers, and LinkedIn groups can provide the same value. Participate actively, share your journey, ask for feedback, and offer help. Building relationships in these communities can lead to your first loyal users.

3. Offer something irresistible and free

People love free stuff. I made Jotform free to start with, which lowered the barrier for people to try it. Whether it's a freemium plan or a free trial, offering a no-risk way to use your product is important. It not only brings in users but also helps you get useful feedback to make it better.

4. Personalize Your Outreach

Taking the time to do personal outreach can have a big impact. I spent time sending customized emails to potential users and tech blogs. Writing messages that are specific to them shows you value their feedback and experience. Nowadays, sending personalized LinkedIn messages or Twitter DMs can also work really well.

5. Offer tailored solutions

Offer customized solutions or quick demos to show what your product can do. To showcase Jotform's features, I started a "Request a Form" service where users could explain what they needed, and I created the forms for them. This hands-on method had a double whammy of showing how Jotform could help solve their problem and just how I cared.

6. Watch users in action

I had people at the tech center where I worked try Jotform while I watched. It was like a live usability test, and their feedback was really helpful. You can now use tools like Hotjar or FullStory to watch how users use your product and see where they encounter problems. Watching real users helps you make quick improvements.

7. Create content with purpose

Content marketing isn’t just about making lots of posts, there needs to be a clear goal and reason behind each thing you put out. I focused on making helpful, high-quality content that taught users and answered their questions. Platforms like Medium, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok are great for reaching and teaching your audience. Take advantage. Content users find useful builds trust and naturally attracts more users.

8. Turn testimonials into stories

Social proof is more than just testimonials. Turn customer feedback into stories that show how your product helps and makes a difference, then share these stories on platforms like Trustpilot and social media. This will help your business build trust and attract new customers. Shoutouts and endorsements can also strengthen your story, which will, in turn, attract more users and help you grow.

9. Use early-adopter platforms

You can get a big visibility boost from platforms like Product. Communities like these are full of tech lovers ready to try new things and share feedback. A successful launch can help you get people's attention right away and get useful comments from them.

10. Build in public 

Sharing your journey openly can attract early users who care about your story and want to see you succeed. Sharing updates, challenges, and milestones on social media - especially Twitter -  and on platforms like Indie Hackers can help you create a community around your product.

11. Relentless promotion

Share something about your product every day. Stay consistent ᅳ keep promoting and engaging without giving up. ⁤⁤Every little effort counts. ⁤⁤Be experimental with it and try out different things — social media posts, email newsletters, and online groups — to find what works best. 

12. Build an email list early

Start building an email list from day one. Engage your audience with regular, valuable updates. Email marketing remains one of the most powerful tools for converting interested visitors into loyal users.

13. Optimize for search engines 

SEO was critical for our long-term growth. It takes time, but it brings a steady stream of visitors who are likely looking for your product. Creating high-quality, targeted content drove organic traffic to Jotform. These visitors are easier to convert because they have a clear intention — if you target the right keywords. Focus on SEO right after you validate the idea.

I started developing the app in early 2017, well before the AI era, when mobile apps were at their peak popularity. My idea was to create an app for emotional and psychological support in the form of helpful articles and various quizzes, such as personality assessments and life satisfaction tests. I named the app "Emotional Intelligence" because this keyword showed good ASO potential for positioning at the top of mobile stores.

This proved to be accurate, and the app quickly gained traction in terms of downloads. A major problem I faced then was monetization. Unfortunately, in my country, it wasn't possible to sell through Google Play then, so I could only display ads. I started with Google AdMob, earning $2000 monthly after just a few months. The app then got about 1500 organic downloads daily and quickly surpassed 500,000.

Three years after launching the app, I decided it was time for branding to build recognition. By combining the words "sentiment" and "intelligence," I came up with "Sintelly." I then pushed the app toward a social network, which differed from the right move. Adding features like discussion forums for problems, likes, and comments would result in even more growth, but the opposite happened. The app started declining, and I began investing in advertising campaigns. I managed to maintain a balance between income and expenses but without any profit. Then COVID-19 hit, and everything went downhill. I had to give up development and find a job as a developer to ensure my livelihood.

Two years passed since I gave up, and that's when ChatGPT started gaining popularity. This immediately showed me how to steer the app towards active support for well-being questions. As I'm not an expert in psychology, I found several external psychotherapists who helped me put together CBT therapy, which I then implemented through a chatbot. This is how the new Sintelly app was born, with its main feature being a chatbot system composed of 17 AI agents that adapt to the user and guide them through a five-phase CBT therapy (I'll write a post about the technology). In addition to the agents, I added various exercises and tests to provide better personalization for the user.

Initially, I made all of this free, which was also a mistake. I followed the principle of first showing what the app can do and gathering enough new users before starting to charge. I started selling subscriptions at the beginning of July, and since then, the app has had stable growth.

Lessons learned:

• If things are working, don't touch them
• Start selling immediately upon app release; there's no need to wait
• Regularly test prices and types of subscriptions
• Onboarding is the most essential part of the app because most users buy subscriptions during onboarding
• It's essential to listen to user feedback.
• From day one, have a website and work on content to generate organic visits and redirect users from the web to the mobile app

Stats:

• Over 1.4 million downloads
• 4.4 rating
• Only 40,000 active users (I had a massive loss during the period when I gave up)
• 280 active subscribers
• $3000 monthly revenue

Next steps:

• Work on improving the Agent AI approach
• Setting up email campaigns and transactional emails
• Introducing in-app and push notifications
• Introducing gamification
• Potential for B2B

I hope you can extract useful information from my example and avoid repeating my mistakes. I'm interested in your thoughts and if you have any recommendations for the next steps. I'm always looking to learn and improve.

If you have a bad product and good marketing - Many will buy it, but only once.

If you have a good product and bad marketing - It will take a long time until people find out about it.

If you have a good product and good marketing - That's where the success is!

After 4 or 5 years of working for a company I was laid off last October. So, I thought this is a good time to get back into building my own products as I had good savings and could afford to take a year off. If nothing else, you learn a ton building your own projects and it keeps you up to date with current technologies.

I didn't know what to build so I just decided to play with AI, learn what it could do and see if there is opportunity. It actually blew my mind and I felt (still feel) it unlocks a whole new world of possibilities.

While testing its capabilities an idea came up and I started working on it. Now, this wasn't my first project, so I knew how important and hard market validation and promotion is. However, I then had this "Nah, this time it's different, this idea is really cool and will work for sure" rationalization not to do marketing.

WRONG!

I had a minimum working version in February, which I showed to friends and family. Their reaction was this seems cool but not for them. Again, I rationalized that they're not my target audiences. So, instead of launching this version, I doubled down on developing more features. The constant lie I was telling myself: "oh, I need to finish this feature and people will love my product"

AGAIN WRONG! This is so obvious in hindsight

I launched my product a few weeks ago. It had all the features I wanted. I was sure it will be success. You can probably guess where this is going. I had traffic in thousands, sign ups in hundreds, which wasn't bad. However, less than a handful converted to paying customers. And of those few, half cancelled their subscription.

So, I made a whole lot of bad decisions. But I do not regret them as I learned a ton of stuff too and just wanted to share them with you. Most are repeated here (and everywhere) on a weekly basis.

Lessons learned:

• Start marketing on day zero. We've all heard this advice, probably many times.
• If you don't have an audience, you will probably have to pay for an audience.
• ProductHunt - not sure. I don't have an audience so my launch there wasn't successful. However, it may work if you have an audience.
• Newsletters work. Find relevant newsletters and reach out to them. It may cost money but it works.
• Your product will break at first contact. I consider myself a pretty good developer. However, no developer can predict how users will use your product. Stuff will break. Have good processes in place to catch those bugs and fix them. Have good processes to communicate this with your users. Also, why you should launch early.
• Focus. There is a famous quote by Steve Jobs on focus: focus is about saying no. I knew it was true. But it's so easy to fall into trap of "developing one more feature". Focus on one thing. Make it work. Battle test it.
• It's a journey/adventure. Creating and launching products is a journey where you are blindfolded. You don't really know where to begin, where to go, you will most likely stumble a lot. Unless, you are super experienced. Have fun, don't worry too much. Observe what's working, fix or remove what's not, learn and adapt.

What's next for me? After talking to a few users, I still believe there is an opportunity for my product. I will be stripping all the features and focusing only on one thing. And marketing of course.

How I bootstrapped a $40m company overnight, and by overnight, I mean it took 11 YEARS and I SURE AS HELL didn’t build it by myself. Here’s my story, my epic failures, the successes, and the heartaches.

2010:

I was 22 and worked at an engineering firm as an assistant, and I sucked at it. I hated having to dress up and be someone different at work. I was miserable in corporate life.

I got my real estate license because I wanted to sell million dollar homes. Turns out I didn’t know any millionaires. Shit.

I was like, “what do all my broke college friends need?” They need apartments! I started finding my friends apartments in my spare time, after work and on the weekends. I didn’t quit my full time job because, that is scary duh.

2011:

Utilized my network on social media to find my friends and their friends apartments. In Texas, apartments pay you a referral fee if you are a licensed real estate agent and you send them a lease.

Still I did not quit my job, because…. that’s scary duh.

2012:

Got my broker’s license so I could start hiring people underneath me. I interviewed people after work and I stayed up until midnight every night posting ads on craigslist to find clients. Then I went to my day job at 7am.

(MISTAKE) Still I did not quit by job. Because that’s fucking scary duh.

At this point I was making about $8k/month from apartment locating part time, but for some reason it was too risky to quit my $20/hr job. Don’t talk to me about logic, I have none.

2013: 5 people, $500k revenue.

Mom died. That REALLY sucked. Read Man Search For Meaning and it changed my mindset. Said “fuck it, might as well take this apartment locating thing seriously and start a company”. Quit my job and opened the first tiny 500sqft office 3 weeks later. Launched a website.

Wow. Wish I would have quit sooner. So much more time to focus on business. Hired more people. Realized that they were better apartment locators than me, so I focused on my specialty, marketing and lead gen.

2014: 15 people, $1.2m revenue

Instagram started to blow up. We focused on posting the best apartment deals in the city. Like, the deal that we would want to lease that for ourselves because it’s such a good price. Turns out, other people wanted to lease those too and we started leasing every time we posted a unit. Then properties started calling us wanting to be featured on our “instagram”… I was like sure what are your 1 beds going for? ‘$1400’… and I was like okay we need those for $999, thinking surely they wouldn’t say yes.

AND THEN THEY WERE LIKE YES. I was like WTF?! TIGHT! And that was the birth of negotiated deals. BUT NOW SO MANY PEOPLE CALLING US.

I was a FULL BLOWN PSYCHO about the client experience. I would fire agents who gave shitty service. That was different from what every other real estate “brokerage” was doing. They wanted to hire as many people as possible. I wanted to hire as many AWESOME people as possible. I wanted people who took pride in their work, because I knew that would lead to a strong brand and a strong culture.

2015: 25 people, $2.4m revenue.

Literally could not hire fast enough. So many leads.

(MISTAKE) I started calling all my friends. I was like Oprah like YOU GET A JOB AND YOU GET A JOB AND YOU GET A JOB and everyone was like um hell yeah I’m gonna quit my $40k/yr corporate job and go do real estate for triple the money.

The great thing about working with your friends is that you get to work with your friends! Shit got REALLY FUCKING FUN. It was like a party every day. We were all making money and having a blast. But I’ll talk about the problems of hiring friends later.

We were all gas no brakes, just grow and figure it out as we go. No systems, processes.

2016: 45 people, 4.8m revenue.

We hired another 20 people and grew again. Negotiated deals took off. We were leasing 20-30 units at a time at discounted rates, all from social media.

I was working 80hr weeks and was exhausted, so I hired an assistant who ended up being a game changer hire. She would watch me work, ask me what I was doing and then say “I can do that”. I’m like, you can? Oh! Within a month or so she was running a team underneath her. That freed up my time to focus on hiring more agents.

Oh hello, issues! Customer service started declining. People weren’t following up with their leads, all anecdotal of course because we had no system to track.

My gut said it was time for a CRM because passing out leads via email wasn’t cutting it. It was a mess.

We implemented Zoho as a CRM at the end of the year (before this we were passing out leads just directly to email). This would prepare us for scale.

2017: 100 people, $10m revenue

Hired another 30 people. Launched another market in Texas.

SO MANY OPERATIONAL ISSUES. EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE. WE NEED PROCESS, STRUCTURE, WE NEED AN ORG CHART, WE NEED ACCOUNTING?!?! Still running a $10m business on a spreadsheet.

Read the book “Traction” by Gino Wickman.

Promoted an agent to operations. PRO - he was a killer, working around the clock to help us implement everything in the Traction book. Pushed the business forward and created regular cadence for our leadership meetings.

(MISTAKE) Titled him Vice President with zero Vice President experience. Because I don’t fucking care about titles, I only care about how much I’m paying. Well, that came back to bite me later when people want their pay to match their title.

The hardest lesson I’ve learned in leadership is to be honest with people about their growth and if you believe they won’t be able to get you to the next level, have a REAL and TRUTHFUL conversation. This is hard. Especially if you only have the budget for 1 person and the one you have isn’t able to accelerate the company. I fucked this up many times in my career. I wanted people to like me, but it did the opposite. I was an inexperienced leader who just kept hiring over people because I was afraid to be real. What got you here won’t get you there. I knew that, but I was too afraid to say the hard things. I wish I learned this lesson earlier.

Also hired a fractional CFO company. They tried to move us to accrual, but I didn’t understand it so we stuck to cash.

Started to slowly put systems and process in place.

TRIED to put accountability in place for the agents, everyone freaked out thinking they were all going to get fired so we took it away. Big mistake.

2018: 120 people and $13m revenue

Had to calm down on growth and figure out what the hell we were doing. We hired our first outside person, a Director of Sales. He was a game changer for allowing me to focus on growth while he focused on the sales team.

Remember back when I hired my friends? It was all fun and games till you actually have to manage them. Or fire them.

Most of my friends quit or were fired, and I lost them as friends. My inexperience as a business leader caused me lose people I cared about. It was an emotional year, but it was then that I realized I needed outside help.

So I joined Vistage and EO (networking groups for entrepreneurs). This was A GAME CHANGER. I learned so much from other business owners. Before this, I had no real mentors who were in their businesses every day. And I had no real working experience in leadership since I started this business so young.

We tried again to implement accountability but the agents all freaked out so we took it away, AGAIN. Still no clear accountability.

Implemented Net Promoter Score to get insight into our customer experience. Turns out it wasn’t great. Zoho was a nightmare, it was over complicated and leads were still falling through the cracks. Agents couldn’t stay organized so we decided to build our own custom CRM. That cost a cool $1.2m. But it set us up for scale.

2019: 100 people and $19m revenue

Remember that custom CRM we built? Well that increased agent revenue per head by 38%. We were CRUSHING it. Growing and hiring people like crazy. Multifamily industry exploded.

I was working nonstop, and I was so deep in the weeds I didn’t have time to focus on the future. My Vistage group said I needed a COO and a CFO. I still didn’t have clear insight into my numbers, but my gut said we were going to have to do a compensation change for the agents. Get ready for this, because this was one of the worst mistakes of my career.

Hired an accounting manager (instead of a CFO, another mistake). Another attempt to get us to accrual accounting, failed. For the record- I was being cheap here, having clear insight into my numbers is one place I wish I wouldn’t have been cheap. This caused me so much pain.

Because I didn’t have clear insight into my numbers, my gut said we needed to be at a lower comp for agents. I was afraid of risk. This fear cost millions and our reputation, and has taken over 18 months to repair. Having clear accounting is rookie shit guys, I know. I really wish I knew this back then.

In November of 2019, we HEAVILY adjusted comp downwards. We lost 30% of our team, which is about what we were expecting. Over the following 5 months, we lost another 30% of our team, resulting in us having to replace 60% of our entire agents. It was rough, and morale was low.

Here’s why we lost so many.

Comp mistake 1: We gave people only 2 weeks to make a decision on whether or not they wanted to stay. This was so dumb on my part. My fear was that they were gonna stop taking care of them and it would hurt the business. That was a poor assumption on my part. People need more time with comp changes to decide if it makes sense for them to stay or to look at the market to see what is out there.

Comp mistake 2: If they chose to stay, they were REQUIRED to sign a contract that forces them to stay until July 1, which is when our “busy” season ends. This was such a huge fuck up. My thoughts were - protect the business and the rest of the team during its busiest season so people don’t just say they’re gonna stay and then leave mid Q2. I thought I was protecting the rest of my employees, but by putting these “shackles” in place, it made things worse. I realized agents were staying at my company because of a contract, not because they wanted to be here. (I later rescinded this contract and apologized, and we still had a majority of people stay through that).

Comp mistake 3: the comp plan itself. In one of our markets, it was backwards. I have no idea why we did it that way. The more you produced, the less money you made per deal. It was dumb. Also, our average agent take home for full time went to $60-80k. I thought that was a really great living for agents who were getting all leads provided, all they had to do was find people apartments. Turns out, there is a lot more variability, which is why we ended up adding back more comp in 2020.

Comp mistake 4: As CEO, I did not announce the comp change myself, my Director of Sales did. My thinking? At some point he has to take full ownership of the sales team. I was at home with my one week old baby, and I knew he could handle this. The perception from my team? That I was too cowardly to announce the plan myself. Is there some truth there? Absolutely. I didn’t learn how to stop shying away from the hard conversations until after I hired my COO. (Will talk about him in a bit, he was a huge role model for me on how to be a better leader)

Fifth and most important mistake: I lost the trust of my team.

Overall, I had to choose whether I wanted the agent role at the company to be an INCREDIBLE opportunity for a few, or a GREAT opportunity for many. I chose the latter. Let me be clear, I would make that same decision again, but I would roll it out so differently, and clear accounting means I could have done a less drastic comp change.

2020: 200 people and $21m revenue

It took me over a year to find my COO and CFO. I had issues hiring “overhead” positions because I thought I could do it all, and I just couldn’t justify spending the amount of money for the position. And these were expensive high level positions that I wasn’t ready for before, but I knew I needed them now that I botched comp so bad. I was an inexperienced leader who needed help to get to the next level.

I finally found two people who spoke about the culture and the people (and not just numbers) and I did everything I could to get them to join the team. I told them that they would have a TON of mess to clean up, and all of it was caused by me.

Over the first 3 months of 2020, morale was rough. New comp, new C level positions, and we also built out our leadership team. A lot of new faces from outside the company, and I had lost trust. We continued to have high turnover.

Then, BOOM. Pandemic hit. Fuck. I was scared shitless. But I’ve learned what damage my fear could do now, so we did the complete opposite of everyone else. We decided to launch 3 new markets in 90 days. It was NUTS, we had sales leaders moving across the country for this company. After the initial lockdown, we had more clients than ever, so we kept hiring and kept growing.

Then my CFO started and he cleaned up our accounting mess. Once I had clear insight into my numbers, he showed me that we could increase comp. I cried out of joy. So we gave some comp back to agents in July. It went well, but we were still earning trust back.

My COO taught me invaluable lessons about facing the hard stuff straight on. So I started talking openly about it. If there is hard feedback, I give it immediately. He made me see how good it is to put the hard stuff out in the open and talk about it in front of the whole company. To be real, and transparent. It is the most important lesson I’ve learned.

And the company is a better place and I am a better human because of it.

We put in SO MUCH STRUCTURE. SO MANY SYSTEMS, SO MANY PROCESSES. Leadership was able to set us up for scale. We focused on our new mantra, “how do we help agents win”. The more our agents crush, the more comp we are able to give back as we gain efficiency.

Lesson? Hire people before you need them. Inexperienced leadership can take down a company, and I am grateful that we didn’t have that fate but easily could have. By the end of 2020 we were slowly earning back the trust of our people.

2021: 530 people, on target for $40m+

We hired 400 people between November and March of 2021, and launched 2 additional markets.

Our agent comp plans now have opportunities for our killer agents to make over $100k, with our top agents are making over $150k/year and we’re hiring another 500 people over the next 12 months.

Lot’s of work to do but grateful to still be growing!

About two years ago, I had this “million dollar” idea of a SaaS. I’ve built it, launched it and failed miserably. Here is what happened.

The idea

The idea was simple. A wedding RSVP platform that allows users to create a landing page for their wedding then either send a URL to your guests or print a QR code for them. Later they could open the landing page, provide an answer and see details about the big day.

The results in a nutshell

After the launch, I’ve spend a few hundred dollars to drive users on the site using paid ads and out of around 5000 page views I got around 50 signups but non would even complete the wedding details. I had 0 user retention and no one was opening my emails. After a few months of sailing, I’ve decided to shut the project down.

The issues

I had made several mistakes right from the beginning and the list probably would go on but these are the main ones I’ve learnt the most of:

I didn’t validate

Well, I thought I did but I had to learnt that I was just fooling myself. When I first thought about the idea, I quickly googled around to see wether there is any competition and I’ve found that there are other sites but it seemed that non of them is active or actively maintained. This for me showed that the idea is validated (because others also built it) and has huge potentials (because of the lack of competition).

The problem with this is that most of us are not that extraordinary (and even if we would be, probably we lack the necessary resources) to come up with an idea no one thought about yet and is “the next big thing”. In most cases, lack of competition means that the idea is either bad, or it’s very hard to find PMF. Definitely not a starter project for a new founder.

Don’t get me wrong, validation is never 100% so sometimes you may as well just build an MVP and launch it if it is possible in a very short time, but here comes my second mistake that…

I’ve spent way too much time on it

I knew that I should not over engineer it, still I ended up investing more than a year, hundreds of hours and a considerable amount of money in it.

Not only because I’ve over engineered it, but also made the mistake of implementing everything myself. Signup, password recovery, email verification, invoicing and the list goes on.. There are countless tools out there for MVP builders that you should make good use of.

Not choosing the right audience

Many people say that selling in B2C is like playing on hard mode. While B2B has its own problems, it’s definitely true that as long as your SaaS saves $100 worth of billable hours per month to a client, they will probably not try to argue about your price being $40 instead of $30 but on the other hand a B2C customer will happily leave a review of your app stating that it’s only worth $0,99 not $1,99 that you are asking for.

But choosing B2C was not even the biggest mistake. If B2C is the hard mode, targeting clients in a very narrow (few months) period of their life (~1 year before their wedding) is like playing on hard mode with your eyes covered and hands tied to the chair. For this to work, you would have to be lucky enough that among all the content out there, the potential customers will see yours in that specific timeframe and they like what you are offering.

Of course if it is your life goal, you can always attend in person conferences or showcasing events but for me that would take away from the opportunities offered by launching a SaaS.

Solely relaying on paid ads

While paid ads are a good resource, they can be very expensive and while you are still trying to find your PMF, they may not be the best option. Building your online presence will definitely take you further and increases the possibility to receive feedback faster.