First Happy Paying Customer
I've been consulting for years, but on Friday I got my first inbound paying customer for my productized service: Design Critique as a Service
They saw my IndieHackers post and were intrigued. Completed the service within the 48 hours that we guarantee, and they are excited about the product, the value we offered, and are open to recommending to others.
Seems like 1 time service packages are a good entry point for this type of offering. It's a low enough barrier to entry that customers are willing to try ($59 one time fee). And if it goes well, there's good up sell opportunities.
The customer is now looking for the next opportunity to use the service. Product market fit for me right now is to have 10 very happy customers using the product consistently, with each customer averaging 12k/yr. This will mean 1) stable revenue that can be reinvested for paid acquisition and 2) a willingness to refer for organic growth.
Acquiring 1 customer per month seems very reasonable based on the customer development I've been doing. Had responses to cold outreach like "Let me know when I can buy!".
I'll be building out more lead flow channels over the next couple of months. It'll be a combination of social posts, free content, FB ads, and outbound cold emails.
Congratulations!
You definitely validated the product idea, which if you asked me in a vacuum I'd probably say it wouldn't work.
Mainly because I feel like the only valid feedback in terms of product design should come from paying customers?
I don't think the product idea is validated just yet. Once I have 10 very happy customers, then I think it's validated. I'll continue to iterate on it until then.
I've done some customer development, and I've heard a few times from founders that they only get feedback from paying customers.
I agree with this, but I think it should be complimented by design feedback from product designers. Customers can talk to you about their needs and whether or not your solution addresses those needs. But it's more difficult for customers to solve the problem for you or give you actionable feedback on how to address their concerns.
Big congrats! I’m learning from your hustle story already.
I’ve launched my 3rd project last week, some traction :) will also create a post in this group
Thanks!
great job @pretenddesigner! let me know if you're looking for ways to fine tune your outbound approach, I still offer 2h consultations to write (or rewrite) your first sequence with makesales.io!
Thanks!