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In 2017 I decided to quit my job to go the bootstrapped way.
Today I'm grateful that @ScrapingBee is doing well.
But our first attempt was a complete failure, reaching only $700MRR after one full year.
I've made a lots of mistake during that time, time to share all of them
Today I'm grateful that @ScrapingBee is doing well.
But our first attempt was a complete failure, reaching only $700MRR after one full year.
I've made a lots of mistake during that time, time to share all of them
Mistake n°1: Thinking reading books was enough.I've read countless number of books about startups and entrepreneurship before launching PricingBot
It really taught me much more than what I learned in university, but it was far from enough.
Books often show you one way to make it work while not talking about all the other way to make it fail.
They tend to skip the part where you have absolutely no idea what you're doing.
Lesson: Books are great, but ultimately, your experience is your best teacher.
They tend to skip the part where you have absolutely no idea what you're doing.
Lesson: Books are great, but ultimately, your experience is your best teacher.
≠Mistake n°2: Thinking users is the same as customers
With PricingBot, we followed the startup playbook.
At each step, we gain users, lots of them.
But it didn't matter.
All we had was users, not customers.
And users don't pay bill.
With PricingBot, we followed the startup playbook.
At each step, we gain users, lots of them.
But it didn't matter.
All we had was users, not customers.
And users don't pay bill.
Of course every customers begins by being a users. But we forgot what was important.
What was important was to have people paying us money each month.
We forgot about it. A crucial mistake.
Lesson: It's all vanity metrics until real people pay you real money.
What was important was to have people paying us money each month.
We forgot about it. A crucial mistake.
Lesson: It's all vanity metrics until real people pay you real money.
Mistake n°3: Thinking that understanding and industry and its users were the same thing.PricingBot was a price monitoring tool targeted at e-commerce owners.
@SahinKevin and I didn't know anything about e-commerce.
So we learned. A lot.
We learned about the tools, the industry, the trends, but also about pricing, competitive pricing and more.
But it the end, it did not matter.
We were selling a price monitoring tool, not a course, and we forgot to learn about the most crucial thing: our potential customers.
But it the end, it did not matter.
We were selling a price monitoring tool, not a course, and we forgot to learn about the most crucial thing: our potential customers.
We lost view about why PricingBot was a good product and why it would benefit our users.
We were bad at explaining what PricingBot would solve and why solving this issue was important.
Lesson: You're selling a solution to a problem. Nothing more, nothing less.
We were bad at explaining what PricingBot would solve and why solving this issue was important.
Lesson: You're selling a solution to a problem. Nothing more, nothing less.
Mistake n°4: Thinking that results grow linearly with effort madeI though that no matter what happened, we would figure it out and that as long as we kept grinding it would ended up working.
I was wrong.
No matter how many blog posts you write, how many $ you spend in ads, how many feature you code, if your fundamentals are bad, you won't make it.
Our fundamentals were bad, very bad.
Our product was not a good solution to a problem not a lot of people were having.
Our fundamentals were bad, very bad.
Our product was not a good solution to a problem not a lot of people were having.
But we didn't want to see it.
It was easier to think about new shinny hacks and strategy than to sit down and tell ourselves that the product what s***.
Lesson: Grinding is useless if you don't grind the correct things, the things that work and bring $.
It was easier to think about new shinny hacks and strategy than to sit down and tell ourselves that the product what s***.
Lesson: Grinding is useless if you don't grind the correct things, the things that work and bring $.
Mistake n°5: Thinking that there was a silver bullet.Many times I though "Oh it's easy, we just have to do that", to then discover that things were way more complicated that it seems.
"We've a conversion problem!": "Oh it's easy, let's improve onboarding"
Our product was bad, not onboarding
"We've an acquisition problem": "Oh it's easy, let's setup an affiliation program, partner will work for us"
And how do you plan to find them
Our product was bad, not onboarding"We've an acquisition problem": "Oh it's easy, let's setup an affiliation program, partner will work for us"
And how do you plan to find them
"I don't get it, this user keep telling me he'll pay and then don't": "Oh it's easy, let's just send one more email"
He did not pay because he found our product useless, that's why.
Lesson: There are no easy solutions to hard problems.
He did not pay because he found our product useless, that's why. Lesson: There are no easy solutions to hard problems.
Mistake n°6: Thinking it wouldn't take longI was really not ready on how slow it was to build, start and grow a sustainable business.
You'll see outliers like @PaulYacoubian, being able to bootstrap to $Xm ARR in less than a year and I'm really amazed by their deserved 
success.
But keep in mind that in most case, you're in for a few years before reaching that level.
Lesson: This damn SAAS thing takes time.
success.But keep in mind that in most case, you're in for a few years before reaching that level.
Lesson: This damn SAAS thing takes time.
I hope you enjoyed this thread!
If you're new to my feed, I try to always share both the good and bad parts of trying to build a sustainable business.
Currently building @ScrapingBee, a web scraping API.
If you're new to my feed, I try to always share both the good and bad parts of trying to build a sustainable business.
Currently building @ScrapingBee, a web scraping API.
