What's your experience with AppSumo?

I'm not sure why people say it was bad for biz, but it has worked really well for us.

We launched on the AppSumo marketplace where they get a 25% cut (or is it 30? haha). They also have their Plus Exclusive (they get a 60% cut), and their heavily promoted deals (I think they get a 70-80% cut of those).

The marketplace worked out well for us. We also have a Plus Exclusive now, but at a much higher price point.

We built a video creation app, which is a popular category on AppSumo. I think a lot of marketplace listings never get a single buyer because the product is too niche. I was amazed that we started getting sales on the first or second day. This was the first time I ever made money online, so it was mind blowing.

We got great feedback. Sure, we had tons of suggestions for more free stuff (LTD users are known for this), but it did help plan our roadmap. We also received criticism and plenty of refunds, which isn't that bad (ok, the first few were haha) if you don't tie your self worth to your product.

I think we will regret staying on AppSumo for so long (getting close to 1.5 years now!) - it made us complacent about sales and marketing. Even though video rendering is expensive, I don't think our LTD users will ever cost us more than the money we've made from it, and that's because you get such a high percentage of FOMO sales from people who will never use it.

Overall, it's been a great experience. We grew the product, made money, learned how to deal with a variety of situations, worked with more use cases, and AppSumo has been very supportive and friendly!

Oh yeah, and occasionally, we talk to customers who tell us it's the best video app they've ever used and that we've enabled them to do something they assumed was impossible - doesn't get much better than that, except coming from someone who pays monthly ;-)