the bar is a lot lower than you think.
- Most people aren't following a clear process for building and launching their products.
- Most people quit trying after 2-5 months.
- Most people don't have a plan.
You don't need to work 70 hour weeks and be an expert to succeed. You just need to not make the common mistakes and stick around for a bit longer. That's enough.
Now, here's exactly how we went from 0 users and 0 traffic to 1600+ users with 80 days of effort and $0 spent:
Step 1 - Foundation:
- You shouldn't build any random idea. Your idea needs to be validated or else it won't resonate.
- We used the Reddit to determine market demand for a few different ideas.
- We found one idea that indicated market demand and that we felt excited about.
- So we started building right? Nope.
- We reached out to potential users about the idea we had and kindly asked if they would help us by answering 6-7 questions. We found these people on Reddit and X.
- Their answers indicated that people had the problem we were looking to solve and that they were interested in the product we would build, and even be ready to pay for it if it was good.
- Great. Now we build.
Step 2 - Building:
- This is the easy part. We knew what we should focus on from the feedback so we let that guide our building.
- We built fast. 30-45 days for the MVP.
- We made sure that our MVP actually solved the problem we had identified.
- That's it. Time to market this MVP and see if we can get some users.
Step 3 - Marketing:
- First we set a clear goal. We wanted as much feedback as possible so we were going to need active users. Let's say 20 active users, that was our goal.
- Then we selected 2 marketing channels we believed in. What marketing channel you select depends on where your potential users are and who they are. For us it was Reddit and X.
- Then we set daily volume targets. For example, post 50 replies on X on relevant posts.
- So we had our daily targets, meaning we knew exactly what to do every day. We thought it would be reasonable to expect that we can hit our goal of 20 active users in 2 weeks.
- Then we just executed our marketing plan. It was easy, because we knew what to do every day. No questions.
- 10 days later we were at 70+ users. We had hit our goal.
- The feedback on our MVP was good so we got the green light to build the full product. Let’s go!
Step 4 - Build again:
- This time we had much better feedback.
- We removed everything that was bad.
- Added some good things.
- And made sure we were still focused on solving the core problem.
- Voila, we had a pretty awesome product at this point that users actually want.
- Time for the official launch.
Step 5 - The launch
- Since our product is made for founders, Product Hunt was the perfect place for us to launch.
- We prepared a demo of the product, wrote a launch post, said our prayers, and then we launched.
- During the launch, we tried to drive as much traffic to our Product Hunt page as we could.
- This meant creating a lot of content on X and Reddit.
- It was a close race for the top 5 spots. Our small team of 2 brothers vs the large VC backed companies.
- In the end we claimed the 4th spot on product of the day with 500+ upvotes. Success!
- You can find the launch post here: https://www.producthunt.com/products/buildpad#buildpad
Continuation in the comments...
- At this point we had over 1k users and had gotten our first paying customers too.
- Now it was just about iteration.
- Collect feedback > improve the product > market more > collect feedback …
- This is what we did to get to 40+ paying customers and 1600+ users.
But how did we know that these are the steps we should take to get there? How did we come up with this plan? The truth is, we stole it.
Let me explain myself.
Earlier this year we failed hard. We spent months building a product that people didn't want. We tried everything to make it work (including spending $1k on ads), but we weren't able to turn it into a success.
It was really weird because we thought we had something good. The product made sense to us.
Finally, we came to a point of sober thought. We had wasted months on a bad product. That sucked, but at least there were some lessons to be learned.
When reflecting on what had gone wrong, it became clear. We had made the same mistakes that 95% of entrepreneurs make.
We didn't follow a clear process. We spent our time on the wrong things. We didn't have a plan. There were a lot of mistakes and we kept seeing other people make them too.
So what if we build a product that solves that problem?
A business building platform for entrepreneurs. The idea spoke to us deeply. We feel your struggles. We know how much it sucks to spend months building something, only to find out that no one wants it.
The product we built was meant for you and us.
Now to the cool part.
We used the product we built to get help building the product we built. Confusing? Let me explain:
The process I outlined above that got us our first 1600+ users wasn't us just freestyling. It was a carefully crafted process by Buildpad.
We started building Buildpad and as we did we used it at the same time to guide ourselves. In a way, Buildpad built Buildpad.
Super meta, I know.
But that's what happened. And if you’re tired of building failed products, maybe give Buildpad a chance?
Probably don't build another Buildpad though. My head starts spinning when I think about the meta of that.
But you can build something you feel passionate about and that people will pay you for. Or you can import your existing project and get help in getting that off the ground.
Once you've gotten your first payments and things are looking good for your business, perhaps you will consider giving us some feedback so we can make Buildpad even better.
This was a long post but it's something close to my heart. I hope you could learn something from our failures and our successes. And if you think Buildpad might be for you check it out at https://buildpad.io
I'm happy to offer my input in the comments if you have any questions.