My first 8 months as a solo founder
I began my journey as a solo founder back in February 2022 while having a full-time job. At that time I started from absolute zero with just 100 followers on my Twitter ✨
But I wasn't totally new to startups. I previously attempted 3 pivots of a consumer startup with a cofounder in the hopes of raising venture rounds
Ultimately the projects never found traction & we had to shut down as my cofounder also lost motivation seeing repeated failures 😣
But I always had the urge to get my financial freedom & work on things I love rather than dreadfully doing mundane tasks at my day job 💪
So I began building Famewall in public as a SaaS product to collect & embed testimonials on websites in under 2 minutes.
This happened after trying out a few testimonial tools myself for my previous projects & I felt I could give a different take on it.
I started to notice that my Twitter account slowly started to grow in the first 2 months where I spent most of my time engaging in replies & adding value to other tweets rather than creating content about my product.
Lesson I learned: Create value for others & give help, suggestions for free before you even think of selling something you created
Once I hit a sizeable audience of 400 followers, 1 month later in March, I began to write content on Twitter. It generated traffic to my website, people were using the product but I had no paying customers.
This was a stressful situation for me since it was my first SaaS product and I thought I might be doing something wrong while also occasionally battling with imposter syndrome
I also had second thoughts about building another product instead as that seemed to be the easy way out. But I came to terms with myself that if I wasn't able to monetize this product, I wouldn't be able to monetize a new one either.
I began to focus on cold outreach via Twitter DMs reaching out only to people whom I've engaged in the past (as people don't like DMs from strangers) to get my first customer as I wanted to validate if users were willing to pay for what I built
2 months after the launch of the product, I apparently got a paying customer in the month of April 🥳
But there was a twist, the payment failed when the kind customer attempted to pay! 🤐 Found out that Stripe needed a compliance document to specifically accept payment for that particular credit card.
I woke up to this notification in firefighting mode, explained this issue to the customer & got it resolved in a day. But I was scared that the customer might have gotten irritated.
To my surprise, the customer was patient and they happily subscribed to the product 🤩
Lesson I learned: Things take some time. While there are several easy ways out, the hardest one is to put in the effort and wait patiently. Also, customers are willing to be tolerant if you're genuine & honest upfront
After getting my first customer, there was a flywheel effect in motion where I could collect feedback & also attract like-minded customers. So Famewall started growing steadily.
I reached around 1000 followers toward the end of April on Twitter. With the social capital I built in public, I planned to launch on Product Hunt
Being a solo founder I was afraid to proceed with the launch as I felt it was too early and wanted to procrastinate until I hit a specific revenue milestone.
Now again I pushed myself to an uncomfortable spot and wanted to launch right away the following week. So I planned & created marketing materials on a Sunday and launched on a Wednesday
I only expected that the product would gain visibility but never that it would land on the leaderboard.
To my surprise, it ended up as #4 product of the day with a lot of support from the community on Twitter & Product Hunt 😻
Lesson I learned: Try to put yourself in uncomfortable spots often as that's the only way you'll grow as an entrepreneur & figure out what you're really good at
Then as Famewall started growing, towards May, my employer asked me to return back to the office but I figured that it might be hard to work from the office and also build a side project as I saw my peers spending all day long slogging at the office.
I came this far being accustomed to working from home and I thought I could bet on myself and work on my startup full time.
I pondered about this on a Thursday morning, took the call, and resigned from my job in public on Twitter
To date, I find that to be the best decision I took. I've been enjoying every day working on my own schedule & choosing to work on things I like (There are rough & stressful days as an entrepreneur but I find it to be more fulfilling this way)
Having quit my job, I felt I had more time. Being fascinated with the portfolio of bets, I thought I could also focus on another project.
So in July, I started Mailboat as a simple email tool to send emails to customers (I faced this problem myself while trying to send emails to Famewall's customers). I worked on it for 1.5 months and finally launched it.
But the biggest mistake with this project was that it was too vast for me as a solo founder as it had complicated flows & started consuming a lot of time since most customers requested product demos & needed some help with onboarding.
After giving it a period of 3 weeks post launch, I shelved this project as I realized that even if it became successful, I would not be enjoying it.
Even though I'm currently using Mailboat for sending emails to Famewall's customers currently, I've stopped selling it as a SaaS to other customers as I feel that I need to direct the product to more a specific niche to grow at a sustainable rate
Lesson I learned: Building another product was a risky bet but I was happy that I shipped the product fast so that I could gauge if I could work on it for the long term. It's much easier to build multiple products if you focus on small sustainable niches over a large product
Currently, I'm all in on Famewall. I learned a lot about marketing during these 8 months & have always tried to experiment with new things.
After battling with flu for a few weeks and a lot of ups & downs, Famewall is currently generating $150 MRR and I couldn't be much happier.
In fact, this small $150 means a lot to me than the fat paycheck I received at my day job 😉✨
But I still plan to grow it to $1k MRR and beyond 🙌
Love the journey, Goutham! I've been following you on Twitter for a while now :)
Your Twitter growth is impressive.
Keep it up!
Hey Daniel. Thank you, mate :)
Also happy to follow you back 😉🙌
Wow, looks like famewall.io is down due to traffic out of this post!!
Oh i was asleep at that time. It seems to be working fine now. But what was the error at the time? Are you still facing the issue ?
Awesome work, thanks for posting about and building in public!
Question for you: how did you decide this product was going to be valuable? Did you do any pre-sales, or did you just go ahead and build it out of conviction?
Thanks Nimmy.
Having tried out a few testimonial tools in the past, I knew there was a market but the existing tools had problems of being slow, limited customization options & reduced the pagespeed. So I worked to give my own take on this niche.
I actually didn't do any pre-sales as I didn't have considerable audience back when I started. My strategy was to build an audience by building in public :)
Question about this strategy: it seems inevitable that there is a phase where you feel like you're Tweeting/posting into the void?
That phase is inevitable for sure. But somehow engaging with people more and producing less content like 1 tweet a day will set the flywheel in motion
Thank you for your thoughtful reply!
How did you consider the risk of building in public? Were you concerned someone would build a competing product?
So one thing I acknowledged upfront is that in any successful market there will be a lot of new players just like me.
But I didn't worry much about competition as there's room for a lot of players in the SaaS space.
You can find a lot of successful products even in a saturated space like social media scheduling. It's just a matter of execution :)
Interesting read Goutham, your journey is inspiring. Keep up the good work.
Thanks a lot for the kind words, Nithur 🙌
Loving the journey you are on and I'm sure this is just the start.
KEEP IT UP!
Thank you Jake :)
"People are rewarded in public for what they practice for years in private." - Tony Robbins
This was not a post, but a piece of art. Well done, Goutham!
As an indie hacker, that's one of the types of content I want to consume regularly where indies share their journeys with all the blood, sweat, and tears to become entrepreneurs, and obviously, the journey is long and difficult but rewarding.
Good luck all the way.
Reading this made me smile. Thanks a lot for the kind words :)
Thank you for sharing your experience! It was a cool read and it was nice to understand your thought process and that also there were doubts and "failures" along the way.
One question: Have you pondered in selling mailboat to someone else? Maybe even an indiehacker?
Thank you, Rui.
I'm actually open to selling it if they'd like to own & grow it :)
Good luck for the future of the company! How did you figure out which types of accounts to follow / interact with to build your audience? Also, any other tips for building in public?
At the start, I would engage with people who had a sizeable audience of more than 500-700 as those people were growing fast & replied to those who commented, giving more reach to us as well :)
Nice to hear the tales from someone else making the journey!
Thank you Nicholas
What is the best way to find a advisor or mentor for your new tech startup?
I've never really had an advisor/mentor for my startup. So not sure about this one
Good Luck
Thanks :)
Onwards and upwards mate! Great to hear of your success!
Thank you Terry 🙌
I needed another success story exactly like this to kick-in my motivation to finish my own product which is 95% ready. Thanks for sharing, I'm genuinely happy for you :)
Thanks for the kind words, Martin. Yayy! Rooting for your new venture.
Super inspiration and congratulations 🔥🔥
Thanks a lot :)
Awesome, thanks for sharing your story and your advices!
Happy that it helped, Carlo :)
Hey, this sounds like a great story for my newsletter https://onepersonbusiness.substack.com/ Do you mind if feature you?
Or even better, we can do a quick Q&A for it, much like this https://onepersonbusiness.substack.com/p/one-person-business-better-sheets
Let me know!
Hey Guilherme. I'd love to do this. Hit me up on Twitter. We can go for it 😉
Unique story. Amazing story. Impressive story. Thanks for an impressive story that serves as an inspiration to others to do something unique, amazing, and inspiring.
That's super kind of you to say, mate ✨
Happy that this might help someone else battling with imposter syndrome :)
Love your story so far! Keep at it and hope to hear more of more future success
Thank you Mick 😄
Nice work, excited to see where you take both Famewall and Mailboat!
Thanks a lot :)
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Great story @goutham8, Keep crushing it and keep growing, Wishing you all the best
Thank you Vishan
That's a good story. Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you Soumya :)
Its now working.
Amazing story.. congratulations Goutham, your journey is so inspirational, thank you for sharing it with us 🙌
Thanks a lot for the kind words, Ayush 🙌
Great post, and thanks for being so open about your successes and failures!
I'd like to be as open but I don't have much time and I don't know what to write about until there's something interesting to say.
One correction though: I have found that people do respond to cold DMs, it's just that you shouldn't sell to them right away. Show them that you're not a bot. That you cared enough to look at their beloved project. Ask them how they handle testimonials. Etc.
Definitely agree that there needs to be value created for them before we try to talk about ourselves
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.
Great post, I see lots of people using Twitter as a way to acquire customers. Have you branched out in terms of using new channels for customer acquistion? Thanks and I will check it out also.
Yeah I've recently also been trying out other channels like Linkedin and SEO
Great post Goutham! Be interesting to know more about your Twitter strategy 💭
Thanks Sam. I mostly share everything that happens about my business in public & my journey as a solo founder with ups & downs on Twitter. That's what seems to work really well for me
Well done so far Goutham! Keep building and learning 🤙
Thank you Zuck :)
For someone thinking about taking indiehacking seriously, this post is a major morale boost! Thank you for the post!
Thanks mate :)
Hi Goutham! Thanks for sharing your story - I'm on a similar journey and appreciate the honesty. I looked in Famewall and was wondering if you've tried any pricing tests yet? For this type of service, I was expecting a price tag of $3 to $7 per month.
Thanks for the inputs. Yeah previously at the start, Famewall was priced below $10 but now this price point seems to be working with a lot of businesses while also helping me sustain bootstrapping
So great to read about your journey, Goutham!
Thank you so much for the kind words, Sneha 🤩
Great work, thanks for sharing! What would you have done differently if you had to do it again?
Thanks, Edrick. So one thing I might have done differently is to have taken more riskier bets and tried to build a community early on :)
Such an inspiration—thanks for sharing!
Thank you Lilian 🤩
This is such an inspirational post! Thanks for sharing it @goutham! Going to use Famwall for my workplace! :)
Thanks for the kind words, James. I'll be super happy to have you onboard as a customer 🤩🙌
Inspiring work! Being happy and fulfilled with what you do is much more important than money - hope you will come to a point where you don't have to worry about that anymore and just enjoy building the product!
That was so kind of you to say, buddy :)
Agree with you. In the end we quit our jobs to work on things we love 💯
Thanks for sharing & congratulations!
Thanks Brennen!
Amazing. Good luck man.
Thanks for sharing
Thank you Naresh :)
A great read indeed. Quite relatable.
Thank you Kunal :)
It was very fun to read. Especially, that all you me learnings provided a value and a pace. Good luck on your journey!
Are you going to expand on your portfolio of bets?
Thanks, Damian. At the moment, I'm planning to go all in on Famewall till I reach $1k MRR as that's the point I can breathe more freely without having to worry about the runway.
So I might try other bets maybe later next year :)
Congrats Goutham! Been following your journey for a bit and I've always enjoyed hearing your learnings. Cheers to more successes!
Thanks for the kind words, Allison 🤩
Inspiring. Thank you for posting. Keep going at it my man! What are some, if any, of the things you've found out that you wish you knew before getting started?
Thank you Malthe 🙌
There were a lot of things I wish I knew. One of it is to focus more on marketing & build a community around your product before you even start building one
I echo the point on building a community. Currently, growing a community through Product Head. Surely but slowly.
Good luck to you, Malthe 🙌
Interesting story.
Were you morally prepared that this project would not work? Or did you know that this is the jackpot?
Hey Dima. With Mailboat, I did presume that it had a fair chance of failure as it was something hard that I ventured out to do. But I had the urge to ship it since I faced the problem myself
I mean about Flamewall
I actually knew that there was a validated market for Famewall. So I only kept trying to see what worked.
Got it. Thank you for your response
Insightful story! For me especially the part about Mailboat - one of main factors for idea selection should be your willingness to serve particular market in way that niche dictates you to do it.
You're right Martins. At first I thought I could solve that problem well since I faced the problem myself. But I underestimated how hard it would be to proceed with a technical product as a solo founder
Thanks for sharing about your journey and the ups & downs. Where do you see yourself in the next 8 months as a solo founder?
Thanks. So the number one goal for me is to get to the revenue milestone of $1k MRR where I can comfortably draw a salary from the product & have no stress about the runway.
Congrats on your story. It's a tough road, so nice work on pushing through.
Thanks Andrew :)
Really inspiring Goutham. I have been working on my startup as well for a while and love reading stories like these. Cheers!
Thanks mate :) Best of luck to you on your new startup 🙌
Really cool to read your story, especially the part about your first customer. I too have been surprised at how appreciative people are when you are just upfront with them. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Elle 😄
Agreed. Customers will always remember when you're honest with them. Even today I maintain a good relationship with my first customer :)
Enjoyed hearing about your story! I'm currently on step two myself - been struggling a bit lately after launching with shades of imposter syndrome so it's nice to hear I'm not alone, just a natural part of being an entrepreneur!
You got this, Graham. It's part of the journey where we constantly doubt ourselves. But we can't do much about it, so it's better that we rather focus on the essential tasks.
Good luck to you 🙌
Love your journey. Farewell has a lot of potential. I might need it soon. Good luck buddy.
Thank you Kamban 🙌 Looking forward to have you onboard 😉
Very inspiring to see your learnings. I thing it's a good idea to focus on Famewall, it can grow much bigger 💪
Thank you, Dago. Means a lot coming from you 🤩
Hey @goutham8,
Nice going with Famewall.io. I enjoyed reading your journey story, especially the Lessons Learned.
I have 2 questions:
Thanks Obinwanne.
I have a fixed burn rate to pay rent, send money to parents & manage expenses. According to that I had enough savings from my day job which would cover me for 2 years even if my project doesn't generate revenue until then
I actually believe it's possible if I figure out the consistent strategy. But even in the case I don't, I can always do freelancing on the side while I eventually figure it out :)
The Fixed Burn Rate — I feel — is something that should be taught to mastery in the very early stages of all educational systems. Once you become accustomed to it and not adjust from a Beamer to a Lambo [or similar] just because your MRR went up like a rocket, a lot of social ills could be eliminated for good. It's a great custom to cultivate. Thanks for sharing.
On the second question, I was just curious to know how founders plan for the unforeseen, hence the question. It's nice to have a fallback strategy. All the best in your journey to $1k MRR and beyond.
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Hey there. Sorry as I was asleep during that time. What was the error that showed up? It seems to work now. Is it still showing the issue for you?
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Thank you Mike :)
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