My brain explodes thinking about how to continue with my Startup. Please heelp!
Hello friends, I want to open my mind and be honest with you with this:
I am going crazy for not finding the best path for my Startup and I feel that we have a lot of growth potential.
I share a concept map about what we do and how we generate income.
Short Description: We help companies create beautiful, fast and secure websites. Then we offer them their own Headless CMS for their blog with elearning module for internal training.
In other words, we mix quotes per project + SaaS product.
I have been feeling very bad for months because financially we are not moving forward and I feel that it is my fault.
I would like to receive your support with the experience you have to feel better as an entrepreneur and, if possible, receive advice regarding the path we should take taking into account the conceptual map that I share.
Thank you very much for reading me, any comments I will appreciate.
Greetings!
You should start mapping the clients you have right now and the clients you would like to have. Who would you like to work with? What is their budget? What pains do they have?
Then I'd think about the unique value you can provide to those clients. Why should they choose you and not the competitors or other website builders like Webflow (and the CMS provided there). All they care about in the beginning is getting a new website; they have no idea about the ways to get it.
Understanding your client type is the first step to understand your business idea. In entrepreneurship, it's all about the joy that comes from working with people, providing value to them by solving their pains.
You wrote about not moving forward financially. Why? Do you get new clients? If don't, why?
Hello @marcinem , thank you very much for your answer, I find a lot of value in it.
In 2020 we have managed to close agreements with clients who have required custom developments with backend functionalities that go beyond the traditional ones that you will find in a No-Code product like Webflow.
For example: https://aurorafestival.art where a beautiful and fast front with an integration with Wowza.com was required to stream live events. We also program a passwordless log-in that works with access codes that users receive when buying tickets.
What is difficult for me is to identify those clients that go beyond a no-code website...
I probably have a prospecting problem and I'm not being a sniper with my audience.
We are thinking of pivoting to a SaaS service with something like: https://appwrite.io/
We would like to grow as a Backend SaaS and Headless CMS for Web Developers who want to build products out of the box no-code.
I hope that with the examples it has been clearer of the place we occupy in the world of web programming.
Thanks again for your collaboration :)
If your goal is revenue generation then you should focus more on Headless CMS because it scales easily. Product Scales easily than service.
Also I have one question
Do you guys take projects where 80% requirements is already addressed in your Headless CMS and other 20% you do custom development?
Or it's other way round
Take projects and find a way to use Headless CMS ( if possible )
Hello @sachingk , currently our Headless CMS has the blog functions. You can create content with a Ghost-like experience, then send that content via REST API to any channel, front, or whatever you want.
So, in general, the Headless CMS does not meet all the requirements that they request.
In general, our clients request custom backend and custom frontend functionalities.
Our Headless CMS is just an additional one that allows us a better experience for web developers.
If I were you I would have put Product at the center.
I would have concentrate on sales of Headless CMS and took only projects whose requirements has logical extension to existing CMS features.
That way I would grow the Product and revenue.
I know this shift is hard. It also means rejecting projects that came on your way.
The problem is Services don't scale.Products and Standard Processes do.
Excellent, I'll take your advice.
One of the original ideas we were developing was to become experts in supporting business blogs that want to have a flexible blog in design and with marketing integrations that make sense for their content marketing strategy.
I believe that there may be great terrain to battle there.
What do you think?
Business blog is a process like a movie production. It includes research, planning, creation, release and distribution.
If your Headless CMS can help to manage things end-to-end then you have got a pretty unique product.
Not all companies needs indepth functionality in all areas listed above. But they need some process and management system in place for efficiency.
Good part of this is once company adopt your platform and build their company process around it then they don't churn.
Cost of switching is high for them financially and mentally.
Excellent, thanks for your comments.
We are going to validate that path and build an MVP proposal for some of our existing clients.
I believe that we have the potential to become step by step a platform that supports the content marketing strategy.
Greetings!
Do you mind if I ask for a demo of your current Headless CMS ?
Of course, at this moment we are finishing fixing some bugs in the front of the CMS, and then we will open accounts to use it.
At the moment our clients have been transforming WordPress into Headless CMS. You can see how it works here: https://mpggroup.com.ar/blog or directly in a post: https://mpggroup.com.ar/blog/cambiemos-las-organizaciones
In the next few days we will implement our own Headless CMS to avoid using WordPress Headless again.
I'll write to you when I can send you the account for you to use. It would be an honor for you to try it on any front / blog you have.
Greetings!
Sure. my email is sachingk.30[at]gmail.com.
Reach me on my email when you are ready
Hey!
I don't have an answer for you, because my startup is kind of in the same place rn.
I liked your product, and maybe we can discuss a deal to offer our tool inside your proposal to your clients, so you have a Conversion Rate Optimization solution, so your offer would be: beautiful, fast, secure and optimized for conversions websites.
Check us out: https://abtesting.ai
Hi @franco_g , nice to meet another IndieHacker from South America.
Podemos hablar en Español y eso es genial. :)
I am very interested in your comment, I believe that Latin American entrepreneurs have to work together when products can be aligned to grow.
I just added you on LinkedIn, if you want we can talk more about it and see how to build a roadmap together looking for an average product that has value for users.
I think the possibility of creating beautiful, fast and safe pages with AI that helps improve your conversions seems very good.
Greetings and thanks for your comment.
Hablemos español entonces Jorje!!
Ok. Te hablo por LinkedIn :)