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Not sure if you're bring sarcastic, but I'll bite. Yes, but you need to peel off a specific problem within a given vertical. I bootstrapped both of these ideas
by paulsingh 16y ago
Not sure if you're bring sarcastic, but I'll bite.
Yes, but you need to peel off a specific problem within a given vertical. I bootstrapped both of these ideas and, because of the limitations that come with bootstrapping, I targeted them specifically.
MailFinch is on demand direct mail for real estate agents. Over time, companies that send a lot of invoices started using it too.
NotaryCRM is for notaries - plain and simple. Over time, it became apparent that signing companies were also looking for a solution that solved their specific pains.
- parbo 16y agoI was a little bit of both. Thanks for the extra info!
- sabat 16y agoPaul -- would love to hear a summary of what you did to market these sites. SEO? Direct marketing? Word of mouth? Online ads? What was your approach, and what did you learn? Edit: I suppose one could read this post: http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/distribution-distribution-distribution/# http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/distribution-distribution...
- paulsingh 16y agoHappy to share... I think I'll write an entire blog post on this. MailFinch: Cold calls and asking for referrals. NotaryCRM: lots of SEO (notice the "find a notary" directory and the theme of almost all of the blog posts) For both, there was a lot of call-to-action testing (in terms of verbal calls to action during my phone/in-person conversations) and rapid iteration (breaking features down into the smallest chunks and deploying often). More recently (like, a week ago) I built a really basic site to force myself to learn a little more about consumer-focused community building. As with all of my ideas, making money comes a close second behind the most important thing to me: learning something new.