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http://beatrixapp.com http://beatrixapp.com Solo, self funded and profitable. I work on it while traveling around Asia. Agree with patio11 there's probably wa
by fookyong 13y ago
http://beatrixapp.com http://beatrixapp.com
Solo, self funded and profitable. I work on it while traveling around Asia.
Agree with patio11 there's probably way more than would speak up here. I seldom contribute to HN or the bootstrapping forums mentioned in another reply. I browse a little, but 99% of my time spent in front of the computer is spent working on product or replying to customer emails.
How I got started:
I've built SaaS apps before but they were the dreaded "solution looking for a problem" type.
Then I decided to do things strictly the Lean way. Got out of the building. Talked to customers about an idea I had. Pretty soon I discovered an adjacent problem that everyone had, that sounded fun to solve, and that I had specific domain knowledge in. I built and launched my MVP in one month, from a beach in Koh Samui. I've been traveling ever since then, spending each month in a different country.
Charged from day 1. Had paying customers from day 1.
I find changing my environment enables me to compartmentalize my work better - like I try to get major new features rolled out before I head to my next destination.
Not planning on doing this solo forever. Not ruling out hiring some help down the line and maybe a permanent office somewhere.
But for now it's pretty fun the way it is!
- sami_b 13y agoI remember that you had other apps before like GoodGecko and Peashoot, what happened to them?
- fookyong 13y agoGoodgecko just never made any meaningful amount of money plus it was a competitive space (surveys) so it was shut down. Peashoot did ok but in the end there were too many free competitors (twitter analytics). I think if the same thing happened now, I'm a more experienced entrepreneur so I'd be able to deal with free competitors better - figure out what customers are still willing to pay for, aim for the enterprise market etc.
- icebraining 13y agoSounds useful, and I like the demo. Just a note: when I scroll down to the footer, the demo "pulls me up", hiding the links :)
- bemmu 13y agoIf I understand correctly, this will post automatically to a Facebook page when users sign up. Any trouble with token expiration? I think it was changed from unlimited to a shorter time recently.
- fookyong 13y agoIt's handled gracefully in the app. If it expires and the app tried to post something unsuccessfully the user gets an email asking them to reconnect. Facebook tokens aren't unlimited but they are long enough such that the user doesn't have to reconnect all the time.
- medius 13y agoCan you please share how you marketed the app? What worked and what didn't? Everyone: When sharing information about your app, I would request people to share marketing approaches as well. It would greatly help people who are just getting started.