What is your startup's biggest problem right now?

Question

Share your problems, and perhaps the community will find a solution.

Paul Richardson · Accepted Answer

Getting customers.

I've tried cold emailing, cold Twitter, messaging specific people on LinkedIn, I publish multiple posts each day to social media, I've emailed over 100 companies asking if I can write guest posts (none said yes), tried ScoreApp, Google forms, etc.

Right now I'm in the process of creating image based posts to answer specific problems that my SaaS solves. I'll post these to multiple social media channels, but will concentrate on LinkedIn - eg posting relevant content into relevant groups.

Neel Patel · Answer

Most people struggle with distribution.

Paul Richardson · Answer

@judith_amarachi_ @lukas_nedo the onboading process with AppSumo was very clunky and slow. They only listed us within their menu - not on their home page or in any emails. Most of the sales we got from them were actually from our cold Twitter outreach. They kept our listing on for a lot longer than they originally stated, then removed it without notice. If you look around, you will see a lot of people have had the same experience as me.

Nobody has upgraded from the free plan - very few actually use it, they just sign up.

Our free plan gives a lot more than any of our competitors - and it's for life. 2,500 generated images per month is good for small businesses, but medium/large business send millions per month. We want small business to get on board and upgrade to the paid packages as their audience grows. Plus, we want to learn how people use the system.

Also, the free plan has a small watermark on the images, so it really is just their so people can try out the service or for small businesses. They can then upgrade to our smallest plan.

Paul Richardson · Answer

@judith_amarachi_ @lukas_nedo I used sites such as Capterra to view the reviews of my competitors. This gave me an idea of the job roles and industries that my target audience is in. I put the information into a spreadsheet and created personas based on this. I also used ChatGPT to gain further information on the information I had collected.

About 15 paying customers (on a lifetime plan via AppSumo - I had a bad experience with AppSumo) and about 60 free signups - a trickle each month.

Paul Richardson · Answer

@judith_amarachi_ Our service enables business to add personalised text onto images, which are generated as the user downloads them. The text can be sourced from live tor static data. The images can be used in emails, chatbots, websites, etc. Personalised content increases customer engagement, sales and revenue. We have also just launched a referral scheme, offering people 25% commission. Sure, my LinkedIn (and other) links are at the bottom of https://performit.co.uk/

Paul Richardson · Answer

@judith_amarachi_ I've done many other things as well, including competitor analysis, contacting owners of small YouTube/blog/podcast, etc. No single strategy, but I have researched marketing a lot in articles, blogs and YouTube. I am thinking about writing an article on what I've done so far. I do write updates each month in our blog https://okzest.com/blog I know one competitor is making over $50k MRR - and they are one of the smaller competitors in this space. We created our SaaS to be better than the competition in terms of ease of use, speed (delivery of personalised images to the user) and other key factors. Our problem is attracting the attention of the right people - i.e. identifying who they are, explaining the solution and demonstrating that our product is the best fit.

Nick from FirstHR · Answer

@paul_richardson good luck!

Nick from FirstHR · Answer

@cloodoworkspace I think this is the problem with all startups.

Drew_Quinn · Answer

@nickanisimov yeah, have been trying for couple month but not so bright :q

Answer

That's interesting, @paul_richardson

I like that you found a loophole your competitors aren't filling and decided to fill it.

Can I know what your product is all about?
And, if you're comfortable with a chat, I can send a hello on LinkedIn

Lukas · Answer

@judith_amarachi_ @paul_richardson what is your bad experience with AppSumo? Could help me :) 
From the free sign ups, no one upgraded their plan?
Because i saw in the free plan you have  already 2500 images per month!!! Which startup needs more than 2500 each month? My thinking is, reduce the amount they can have for free and charge less for those they need extra! Maybe you find a different pricing strategy. Pay per usage for example.

Lukas · Answer

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on AppSumo. To be honest, I believe you're doing many things right; perhaps all you need is to keep pushing forward. It's possible that once you publish something at the right time, the right person might see it, share it, and become your first enterprise customer. Additionally, consider improving how you communicate the value of your paid plans. Explain how they provide more features, benefits, and customization options compared to the free plan.

You could also explore starting a referral program with a no-code macro-influencer. This option shouldn't be too expensive, and it could be a win-win situation by offering them a share of the revenue for each person they bring to the paid plan.

Have you asked your current users why they haven't upgraded? This could provide valuable insights into their needs and concerns, helping you make informed improvements.

Answer

That's a lot you've done @paul_richardson

Do you have a strategy you're following for all this, and have you tried identifying the core problems your audience wants to see solved?

Lukas · Answer

@judith_amarachi_ @paul_richardson how in depth did you create your target personas? Do you have a lot of sign ups for the free plan? Or no sign ups at all?

What is your startup's biggest problem right now?

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