At 24, I’m holding to my aspiration of becoming a founder, but the path has been anything but smooth — I quit my job in Feb, yet already started building my product for months with my friends Private Beta launch in last November, lots of grinding and got first early users. Public Beta launch in Feb, was a blast, number of users spiked exponentially. But amidst the euphoria I faced the brutal fact, still made 0 dollars effectively. This is because we offered free version to test the market first. We are fully bootstrapped, not having millions to burn. Quickly implemented the pricing system and started to accept payment. 2 days after that, a glimmer of hope appeared, we got the 1st monthly subscription user! But alas, it was a false alert, the user made a mistake, he wanted to pay for an add-on in our product, not the core service. Got the money, but not the validation for the product. Self-doubt crept in like a relentless shadow. Considered pivot, discussed how to get new users. 4 days later - today - made a big update, fixed all the bugs early users complained, released the most-wanted features. Sent email to all users about the big updates 6 hours ago. Went for a walk. Came back home and... 1st yearly subscription user!!! Cannot believe my eyes! Yearly!? This feels good. Super, super good! Self-doubt is disappearing I know we still have a lot to go but this small step matters. It's a boost of confidence to our vision: To x10 human productivity and creativity. ✅ Big learning: Before trying to target new users, listen to current ones, do the things they need, then communicate it to them, show them you care. Go for your tribe. With that, I wish you all the best my fellow founders 🙂 And I would love to hear feedback/thoughts from you about how to leverage this momentum :) the product is Saner.ai At 24, I’m holding to my aspiration of becoming a founder, but the path has been anything but smooth — I quit my job in Feb, yet already started building my product for months with my friends Private Beta launch in last November, lots of grinding and got first early users. Public Beta launch in Feb, was a blast, number of users spiked exponentially. But amidst the euphoria I faced the brutal fact, still made 0 dollars effectively. This is because we offered free version to test the market first. We are fully bootstrapped, not having millions to burn. Quickly implemented the pricing system and started to accept payment. 2 days after that, a glimmer of hope appeared, we got the 1st monthly subscription user! But alas, it was a false alert, the user made a mistake, he wanted to pay for an add-on in our product, not the core service. Got the money, but not the validation for the product. Self-doubt crept in like a relentless shadow. Considered pivot, discussed how to get new users. 4 days later - today - made a big update, fixed all the bugs early users complained, released the most-wanted features. Sent email to all users about the big updates 6 hours ago. Went for a walk. Came back home and... 1st yearly subscription user!!! Cannot believe my eyes! Yearly!? This feels good. Super, super good! Self-doubt is disappearing I know we still have a lot to go but this small step matters. It's a boost of confidence to our vision: To x10 human productivity and creativity. ✅ Big learning: Before trying to target new users, listen to current ones, do the things they need, then communicate it to them, show them you care. Go for your tribe. With that, I wish you all the best my fellow founders 🙂 And I would love to hear feedback/thoughts from you about how to leverage this momentum :) the product is Saner.ai Saner.ai
