Building a browser extension empire

[Tau Ceti]

This thread is an adventure. It’s so cool to watch your growth!

Thanks, I am trying to share the good and the bad. Hopefully It will be used by someone sometime in the future, not as guideline but as inspiration.

 

[Tau Ceti]

First of all, big congrats!

At which point do you think a transition to going all-in/full-time makes sense for you? You've mentioned that you have a family to feed, so that makes decisions like that a little bit tougher I assume. At the same time, at this MRR and with your profit margins, don't you think you could make even more progress if you quit your job entirely? (getting more features done quickly, providing more value overall, etc.)

Thanks for your kind words.

Regarding your question, as I said in some earlier posts, I am currently on unpaid leave from my job until July 1st of this year.

After that, it will depend if the business keeps growing or not.

My wife started working since she graduated from university (college for you yanks!) so the financial pressure has eased off because we now have two streams of income.

I have a mandatory 3 months notice period at my job so I will have to go back anyway to work my notice period.

My current thinking is that I will work from July to December at my job and finish on December 31st. That means I will most likely officially resign in September from my job.

This way for 6 months, we will have my wife's income, the business income and my salary. In truth this will allow us to make back the money I am currently losing now as I am on unpaid leave and therefore I dont have a paycheck currently.

My wife also want to resign at the end of the year as we are thinking of moving to Norway (Tromso) as we want to experience living in the Arctic circle for a year.

The most important tasks that I need to complete before returning back to work are:
- release the enterprise plan
- do the full rebrand
- add roughly 3000 automated tests to the Saas and extension

I need the tests because I will have less time at the end of the year since I will be working at my job, therefore I won't have time to manually check that everything is working manually as I am doing now.

I need something that saves me time. So automated tests it is. I already have a couple hundred tests live but the coverage is crap so that is one of my top priorities. This will also give me the confidence to release features faster since I wont have to worry that I may have broken something unexpectedly.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Loving the updates - keep it up! The growth in users looks awesome!

I follow some TikTokers that post about different extensions that solve everyday problems - have you thought about eventually tapping into the use of influencer marketing?

Thanks for your reply. Once the paid plan is out of beta-testing then I don't see why this could not happen.

For now i don't pay for ads and only rely on SEO or the Chrome store listing to get new users. This basic approaches have serve me well. It allows me to grow the user base relatively quickly but I am not overwhelmed with bug reports. If the user base grew from say 1000 to 3000 overnight, that could be a problem in terms of customer support.

Only time will tell. For now the focus is getting the paid plan out, then onboard around 100 user on the paid plan, then maybe start advertising.

Thanks for your suggestion in any case. I appreciate it.

 

[Tau Ceti]

Thanks for your update @Tau Ceti !

As your thread title is "Building a browser extension empire": Any plans for other browser extensions in the near future? Are u trying to get the first to a certain amount of MRR and then switch to project B or what's your plan for increasing your extension "portfolio"?

Kind regards

Well, I guess the title of the thread is becoming little by little irrelevant.

My thought process when creating this thread was to create one extension, market it until it reached around 5K MRR, then find another platform that could have used an extension and repeat the process.

However, after talking with my users and thinking about their pain points and needs, I am fairly convinced that this project could be the only one I need to reach the fastlane.

So at this point the browser extension empire is on hold as I am focusing on becoming ramen profitable and then grow this business to become a fastlane business.

To be honest I am not thinking this far into the future, I focus on the tasks i need to accomplish for now and take it day by day.

Things are changing and will keep on changing until I reach PMF if I ever reach it.
I will keep my options open.

 

[Tau Ceti]

I had a very similar idea. Can we chat? I get tons of Chrome Extension Ideas! and some of them are GOLD. I tried implementing some but man I can't seem to get the extension to actually work... Can I inbox you? Maybe we can partner on an idea? I am a 2nd-year at Uni pursuing a Software Engineering Degree part-time. More than Coding, I feel my strong suit is in sales, business planning, and ideas!

Hi. Thanks for responding.

Can I inbox you?

If you want , I am always keen to have a chat.

Maybe we can partner on an idea?

Unfortunately I don't have time to take on another project. I am currently working on my project and I have my day job as well so time is limited.

I feel my strong suit is in sales, business planning, and ideas!

I think being strong in sales is an asset but unfortunately being strong in ideas does not mean much tbh. You will find that most business work based on their execution not the idea itself. Myself, I have tons of ideas per day but only a limited time to execute them so I suggest you work on executing your best ideas.

As for your implementation issues, I suggest you start with something basic. Then increase the complexity of your project as you add more features.

There are tons of chrome extensions starter packs available on GH. That's usually where I look when I don't know how to do something. The official docs are pretty good as well.

Good luck to you.

 

[Tau Ceti]

Hey Tau Ceti, I've been following your thread from almost the start and your journey is truly an inspiration.

I have some decent skills in web dev and seeing your journey I want to build a web app or an chrome extension.

but I've recently become overwhelmed with WHAT TO BUILD.
I did some research and it was all find a niche/market and solve their problem.

but how do I find a market and a problem to solve?
I don't have any experience in an market apart from 'students' since I'm in highschool too.

can you please give some info on how can I find a problem to solve using my saas?
I would be grateful!
Thanks.

Hey,

I don't have all the answers so take what I am about to say with grain of salt. If you want to build an extension, you can start by browsing the top 200 websites in the world and see if they have some functionality missing.

Then you add that functionality and make it work on the website. It can be something simple like:
- hide comments on Youtube
- add extra buttons that do other things, and so on..

Don't build extensions for:
- Linkedin
-Facebook
- or any app in general where you have to create an account.

The site needs to be publicly accessible, like for example reddit or Twitter or amazon

Linkedin and Facebook will not take it kindly if you start messing with them. Just my 2 cts.

Forget about building a SaaS now. Just get your extension out. 1 feature only and see if people install it. Then you can add more features. Then you can add a paywall and add even more features.

Start small. Just make something that works well. That's all.

Good luck.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

I'm very bullish on Chrome extensions as a business model. It's one of the most overlooked.

The stats speak for themselves:

Apple App Store: 1 billion iPhone users
2 million iOS apps = 500 users : 1 iOS app

Google Play Store: 2 billion Android users
3 million apps = 667 users : 1 app

Chrome Store: 2 billion users
200,000 extensions = 10,000 users : 1 extension

Bottom line: Launching a Chrome extension gives you 20 times more potential users than an iOS app. There is significantly less competition in the Chrome extension marketplace, making it a great opportunity for your app to gain traction.

1. There is an existing app store for discovery, so it is easier to find browser extensions.
2. Low barrier to install (does not require admin rights even)
2. There is relatively low competition for browser extensions.
3. You can focus on one channel (such as Chrome with 50% or more market share).
4. The natural evolution into freemium makes it easier to monetize
5. People are more likely to pay for desktop apps versus mobile
6. Browser extensions integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, making them even more convenient to use.

Notable examples:

LastPass: 25m+ users
Loom: $73m funding
Grammarly: Valued $1B+
Honey: $4B sale

I agree with everything you said. The Chrome extension market is not very saturated once you removed the old/outdated/broken extensions.

Just like everything, it's comes down to the niche that you choose and the existing competition. My extension has some pretty big extensions as competitors but Its growing nicely.

I have a lot of ideas to expand the niche I am currently in but none of those will work if I don't get those 5 first paying customers, so that is my main focus now.

 

[Tau Ceti]

Thank you so much for your response.


My software idea also aims for process cost optimization. How do you market this? Like for example: Before your chrome extension people had to spend 10 hours per week, now only 30 minutes, or something like that?


That sounds awesome. Especially if the niche is really small. Can u tell how many installs come through SEO and how many through social media like Reddit?

Do you mean Keyword Planner? If so, do you target only long-tail kewords or just focus on traffic-rich keywords?

Thanks

No worries about the response. My pleasure.

My software idea also aims for process cost optimization. How do you market this? Like for example: Before your chrome extension people had to spend 10 hours per week, now only 30 minutes, or something like that?

Once again its my personal opinion, can't guarantee it applies to you. If I were you I would not roll out a full solution yet as you dont really know what the market wants/needs.

Start building something small. If the process that you are trying to optimize has 20 steps, create something that automates the first 2,3 steps.

Then market it, write about it. If its useful, soon people will reach out to you with use-cases that you haven't thought of and suggestions on how to make your app better.
Basically, you let the market guide you.

As you add more features, you update the copy of your marketing website to reflect the new functionality. That is how I am doing it now.

i build, market, validate, and so on and so forth. And I talk to users. As much as possible.

That sounds awesome. Especially if the niche is really small. Can u tell how many installs come through SEO and how many through social media like Reddit?

I cant say. I don't post anything on Reddit so it does not really apply to me. Also i have no way to know where the users come from when they install the extension. I know how many use the app but that's about it.

I know its been shared on social media like facebook for example, but that is organic and I dont know who shared it or when.

Do you mean Keyword Planner? If so, do you target only long-tail kewords or just focus on traffic-rich keywords?

No I mean the Google search console. You can see queries that led to people clicking on your website. Once a keyword start coming up again and again, i write an article about it if possible.

I keep the process simple. I dont do any keyword planning or anything like that. i write about a topic and I try to mention the app when it is relevant.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

In retrospect, perhaps a better approach would've been to make the paid version as a separate extension. This way you could've just offered a link that redirected the users from the free app to the paid one that they would then install it with all the new permissions.
The google extensions are a bit laggy in this regard. Great insight though, much appreciated!

I though about it but it would have added more friction as i would have had to communicate the benefits of installing another browser extension to my user base. Also I don't have all the email addresses of the suers as those are not available to the extension developers.

In retrospect, I think it was blessing in disguise.

If a user was not motivated or unwilling to re-enable the extension after the update, it means that there were not planning on becoming regular users anyway and even less likely to become paying users.

The users who use the extension enough and need it very regularly, they have already made the transition and re-enabled the extension.

As of today the mass uninstall event has finished and the extension is growing again. The extension is sitting at around 1500 active users, who all have updated to the latest version.

Onward and upwards.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

I see. As I'm not as far as you are with my SaaS, I still thought about diversification when thinking about the business model for the first time. What I mean by that, is, that I completely understand that focus on one thing or one project has it's advantages (more than disadvantages imho), but you kinda put all eggs into one basket. I for example work on ONE business model but my plan is to produce MULTIPLE SaaS products - not necessarily in the same industry as well. Of course you can't go BIG that way and I focus myself on creating Micro SaaS products but at the end of the day not just one. I guess there are many pros and cons regarding my process.

I'm glad that the user drop stopped for you and I'm looking forward hearing from you every now and then if you don't mind taking the time to update us! =) All in all a really interesting story so far. As interesting as your "CV", as I've read your introduction yesterday.

Kind regards

IMHO diversification is only good if you have a few things going for you first:

- a stable income
- spare time
- a good way to multitask

As you said in your response, you are not at the same point yet as i am (and I have barely begun my journey) on your first SAAS and you are already thinking about diversification. To me that seems to be a bit premature.

No offense to you. I mean it is already hard enough to start one SaaS, i cant imagine what it takes to start multiple ones concurrently and keeping a job at the same time, and have enough time for family obligations and so on.

I understand what you are trying to do. i get it. You probably want to create a few Saas and then market them and then kill the ones that don't work.

But I think that is a formula that works once you already have at least one SaaS that can cover your monthly financial needs. Once you have one that makes you 5K a month consistently, then making small bets on other SaaS is probably safe. Until then, I think focusing on 1 project is better IMHO.

But as you said our approaches are different so who knows, maybe I am completely wrong and maybe you are right or maybe we are both wrong.

In any case, I will keep updating this thread.

Actually as of today, I am officially at $USD 100 MRR. I hope to get to 500 by June and 2500 by the end of the year.

I hope your journey will be as fun as mine and I ll be looking forward to reading your execution thread.

 

[Tau Ceti]

Quick start of the week update

I now have 11 customers and $415 MRR.

I am releasing features on a weekly basis and listening to feedback from the users.
PMF has not been reached yet. There is so much more to build at this stage so I need to stay focus on my goals.

Total revenue so far is $1200. Installs are increasing again.
The last release was a major one with a total revamp of the UI of the extension. It took a while but it's out now and I feel relieved.

So I ll keep on focusing on what matters and try to increase the MRR to $1000 by June.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Its been a while.

What went well:

• User base is growing. Just passed 700 users roughly. I should have close to 1000 users by the end of the year.
• Recruited 3 beta testers for the paid plans
• Published 2 new versions of the extension to fix more bugs. Also made the extension lighter(in MBs) (66% lighter in fact) which means that it's better for users with computers who are a bit slow or don't have too much RAM.
• Published 2 new blog posts

What went wrong:

• Did not make much progress on the paid plans yet. Bug fixes and blog posts have used up all my time.
• Found 1 bug that I can't seem to be able to fix. This user has been telling me that there is something wrong with the extension for the last 2 weeks. I have tried to fix the issue in many different ways but it doesn't seem to do the trick. At this point, I have sent the user a video with detailed steps to have them do more investigation on my behalf so that I can help them but the user stopped responding after my last email.

Notes:

I spent 3 days on a trip with a childhood friend I had not seen in a while. Obviously this is the kind of thing that takes time away from the business.

I am not ready to sacrifice every relationship while building a business so I bit the bullet and accepted that this time was not going to be spent on building my business but it was worth it. Time with loved ones is invaluable in my opinion.

One of the beta testers is part of a large group of my target customers(around 500 members) and has agreed that they will recommend the paid plan to the group once it meets their expectations.

The beta testing group will be a process of co-creation if I can call it that. The beta testers get 6 months on the paid plan for free and in exchange, they will tell me which pain points they want to get rid of by using the extension and also help me prioritize the next features as well as report the bugs if some are found.

To me this is a win win situation. The beta users will help me create the paid plan and I will get some early feedback. By the end of the beta testing phase I should have a rock solid paid plan.

Non beta users will still be able to purchase the paid plan during the beta testing phase but it wont be complete until the beta testing phase is over. I will keep adding features to the paid plan until I deem it worthy of $49
/month and then get on to building the the pro plan.

I am thinking of adding error reporting software to the extension but I am a bit reluctant since this could be small invasion of privacy. On the other hand I would not have to wait for users to report bugs and could preemptively fix the bugs found.

If someone has an opinion on this matter, I would be happy to hear it.

That's it for now.

 

[circleme]

I am sorry , I did not mean to put a damper on your idea.

Nah, it was good. It was kind of a wake up call!

For example even if you release a new saas every month, it is highly likely that you wont even have time to even begin marketing it.

Even if I had the time, I should lean it towards one project instead of 2, 3 or even more.

I know that as builders, we like to build and marketing comes after. But i think marketing is probably more important than building these days.

That's really true. Probably one of the main reasons, why I had the initial idea of building more micro SaaS. I only saw the building part - which on its own is quite something - but didn't really think about marketing. For one that can be challenging, but for more than one that can go quite wrong. So stick to one is the way to go for me as well. I will move on to the next project only if I can say to myself that I've tried everything I could and gave it enough time.

But if you don't have an audience(mailing list, Twitter or Instagram followers) then you either need to spend some time building this audience and then create a product for them.

I'm basically starting at 0. This should make it even clearer that i should focus on one project only.

Regarding the rest:

ty, I know what you mean. I'm one of those guys who have kind of a hard time to keep things simple. It's something I'm working on myself.

Anyways, thank you for our conversation. It seems kind of surreal to me sometimes that I am able to communicate with someone doing the same thing I'm planning to to or starting.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Another quick update.

I got a few customer churning last week (as expected) and got a bunch of new customers.

MRR is sitting at $600.

Total revenue is $2250 so far.

I am releasing more features each week. I really want to get the Starter plan finished before the end of April, so I can start working on the Pro plan.

The goal is to reach $1000 MRR by the end of April. It seems a bit ambitious but i like to set myself some ambitious targets.

I also need to get back into publishing more blog posts to maintain my position SEO wise.
Things have been a bit slow during the last few days with the Easter holidays but I think it will pick up again soon.

Same thing happened at Christmas time.

 

[Tau Ceti]

Since there was a recent thread about creating a Chrome extension with just ChatGPT, I'm curious if the extension you coded is replicable with it as well.

I've also read through the whole thread, but as someone with little coding knowledge (and SaaS in general), are your paid clients for the extension itself, or are they paying for a separate software that they have to download?

Also, how are you pricing this? You had some price points laid out earlier in your journey, but then there were some talks about your charging $250/m per client. Or is that per year?

I don't think that chat GPT can replicate the extension. To make it work you need intimate domain knowledge of the niche and a few other secret ingredients.

The users pay to use the extension. The extension works on the freemium model.
The free extension is useful but limited.

The paid Starter plan unlocks all the functionalities of the extension.It is currently $50 per month.

The goal here to have the extension work as a standalone and as a complementary product to a SaaS product.

Basically, the best way to explain it is:
- free extension => lost of manual work
- Starter plan => less manual work
- Pro plan => almost no manual work

The Pro plan will be $250 to $300 per month (not sure yet) It will give you access to all the starter Features plus more hands off functionalities.

A good example of what I am trying to achieve is this one: BrowserFlow
This guy has a product, a chrome extension and it has also a "cloud" part which is only available in the costlier plans.

That's kind of what I want to do ultimately.

But things change all the time so who knows what will happen in the end.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

You'll get there.

It reminds me of this:

MINDSET - Freedom as an entrepreneur (Amusing PM w/Freelancer)

Thought you guys might find this amusing.

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Thanks for your kind words.

I am biding my time. I know I can't quit now. It doesn't make financial sense. It's frustrating but it is like that. I am not unhappy, I just know I could be happier.

This is all part of the process of delayed gratification. I know I will get there eventually. I can almost taste the freedom.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

All the best for your endeavours.

What tech stack do you use to build browser extensions?

Thanks

React + Jquery + tailwind CSS

 

[Tau Ceti]

End of the month update.

June was great month. Revenue expanded and churn was trending lower as I added some more requested features.

For a while I was on track to reach almost $1100 MRR but I had 3 customers churn a couple of days before the end of the month.

I tried reaching out manually but to no avail. So the final MRR was $960.

I promised myself that I would buy a nice bottle on whisky when I reached $1000 MRR. I hope to finally be able to buy it in July.

But nothing is guaranteed so we will see. A lot of SaaS founders on Twitter talk about the Summer slow down where your MRR goes down quite a bit during July and August. Same deal for browser extension creators.

So far the number of installs is still increasing so I am not too worried about it.

I almost have a 1K list of validated email addresses. I am going to start sending product updates at the end of each month to the contact on this list.
I haven't done it so far as many features were missing but I feel like the product is becoming very usable.

I hope to finish July with an MRR above $1200.

Based on the current MRR expansion, I believe I will finish 2023 with an MRR between $2.5K and $3K.
A far cry form my $10K goal but It is better to be realistic than in denial.

I am taking a few weeks off in July. Mind you this a is a break from my day job and not from the business. The plan is to take my Mac with me overseas and if need be, do some coding in the morning and spend time in the afternoon with my wife doing various activities.

It's a bit of a work-cation in a way.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

August update.

MRR is sitting just below the 1.5K mark at this time. I just released a big update that is the foundation for many new features that are upcoming.

The partnership with the other extension dev is set to start this month. No fixed date yet, I still need to set up the referral processes in the app and in the extension.

The plan is to reach 1.8K MRR by the end of September and build a few other features. I also need to record some videos to educate the users on how to use the extension/web app.

I am very excited about the future possibilities.

The only thing that scares me at the moment is the re-brand. I need to do it before the end of the year and I need to be careful to not disrupt my users as well as the payment's infra and what not.

I also know after doing some research that I am going to take a massive hit in terms of SEO performance but there is nothing I can do about that.

That s a learning right here. When you start to build a product, then using a very specific name can help reach more users at the beginning but as the product grows, you need to un-niche yourself and therefore a renaming/re-branding becomes necessary. Oh well.

 

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[Two Dog]

Nice job!! I've had a profitable SaaS since before it was called SaaS that's been on autopilot for quite a long time.

* freemium was never appealing because of the support burden
* converting free accounts to paid accounts is very difficult (with rare exceptions for some biz models)
* reducing churn is MUCH more important than adding new accounts for increasing MRR
* be extremely judicious in implementing new features based on user requests (NO is usually the right answer)

I recently came across a guy in the UK (Rick Blythe) pimping out a micro-SaaS Chrome Extensions course. Didn't read too much, but worth skimming over his ebook to get some ideas. Another fantastic reference is Rob Walling who's puts out a tremendous amount of valuable content over the years. Really smart guy. He knows the 1-3 person tech software/app space extremely well.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Quick update on this beautiful Monday.

Number of users: 395
Blog post published last week: 2
Blog post published this week: 0

The account creation on the marketing website is done. The payment part is taking slightly longer than expected but should be done soon.

Then comes the implementation of the premium functionalities within the extension. I have a rough list of features that need to be added. Expected development time left before able to release the paid plan is roughly 20 to 30 hours. then I will need about 8 hours to test the payment flows and the new functionalities.

Then the extension will need to be submitted to the Chrome store for approval which can take up to 5 business days.

The goal for this week is to published 2 blogs posts, finish the payment system and start working on the premium functionalities for the extension.

Upcoming issues:

I am going away on a work trip for 4 days this week, so it will impact my development time but I ll do my best to do some work everyday.

 

[BigBuddha]

It's been two weeks since my last update.

What went well:
- released a new version of the extension to fix a few bugs that some users had reported
- wrote 4 blog posts
- the user base is growing nicely => closing in on 600 active users

What went wrong:
- I had to go on a work trip for 4 days which put me really behind in terms of feature released and blog posts written so I had to play catch up this week and work longer hours to make up the time.
- I made some progress on the users accounts and payment plans but I still have to implement the paid plan functionality. At this rate the payment plans won't be available for public use before mid-December if all goes well.
- found a new bug in the extension just after getting the new version published so I need to spend some time on fixing it and submit a new version for approval this week.

Whats next?
- tidy up a few things and check the articles written this week for spelling mistakes and grammar(it was a very rushed job)
- keep building the user accounts/payment features and get approved by Paddle for the payments

All in all, its been a tough week, on top of that I have been put on major project at my job with a hard deadline so my days are long and tiring. But that is the price to pay to regain my freedom so I am not about to throw my hands up and the air and give up.

Things will get bumpier once the paid plans are released. No doubt. So I better toughen up and be prepared to handle issues.

Loving the updates - keep it up! The growth in users looks awesome!

I follow some TikTokers that post about different extensions that solve everyday problems - have you thought about eventually tapping into the use of influencer marketing?

 

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[circleme]

Hi Tau,

thanks for your in depth answer. Really appreciate it!

200/250$ per month seems to be quite a lot for a chrome extension. Do you mind elaborating a bit regarding your the use-case of your extension?

I'm sorry to hear, that users are uninstalling but maybe it's just a tracking issue as well.

1. Can you tell a little bit more about your "from idea to implementation to marketing process"?
2. Why this app (how did you find the problem you are solving?
3. Why chrome extensions as the first touch-point and the SaaS as the Up-Sell
4. Why Chrome Extensions at all
5. How long did it take you to develop your app in total?
6. Do you follow anyone else in the SaaS industry?
7. Are there any other monetization opportunities besides the paid plan that you would/wouldn't consider? (like ads for example)

I'm looking forward hearing other updates from you!

 

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[Tau Ceti]

I'm exactly in that position right now, except the last one. You can read my initial threads if you want. tldr: I'm an ex software dev that has transitioned into data-driven-marketing freelance a few years ago after university. I have reduced my client base a few weeks ago so I can invoice around 1 day per week which is enough for me to cover my bills. The rest of the week will go into my fastlane business. (which will be micro SaaS)​

I'm completely with you here. I did never say that I'm going to start them concurrently and the rest of your sentence applies to you, not to me.

That's basically the plan, yeah. At the end of the day it will be something like:

1. Find really niche problems with niche audience
2. Potential need analysis
3. Creating MVP (it's a bit more than that, as I do focus on micro SaaS and the difference between the MVP and the final product isn't that huge in terms of functionality; I'm really bad at frontend design, so the alpha, beta version will look like shit most of the time)
4. Market the product through a pre-defined process (Inbound & Outbound)
5. Repeat 1-4 with a new solution

I'm not talking about MVP development which takes upfront of 200 hours. I'm taking about one or two weeks max. and get it out instantly to validate it even more.

I hope you do understand my reasoning behind a little bit more now but even if you do and as you've already mentioned, I can be completely wrong with my whole process.

Big congrats! Especially in your status quo, that's quite something!

Apologies for misunderstanding your previous message.

I understand your process better. It reminds me of the 12 projects in 12 months philosophy

I wish you well in your execution.

Hopefully we can both learn from one another as we make progress on our respective project(s).

 

[circleme]

No offense to you. I mean it is already hard enough to start one SaaS

We may have talked slightly past each other initially, but my initial "idea" of multiple SaaS products - even if only micro - died because of the following statement from you

There is so much more to build at this stage so I need to stay focus on my goals.

I am still at the start of my MVP development and have obviously significantly underestimated the effort behind it. Also, more and more possible "ideas" or features come up that the ONE SaaS could still have to solve further sub-problems of the possible customer. While I won't map all these in the MVP, they will come sooner or later. To "dream" of the next SaaS product already now was very naive on my part. Your input from the past posts made me question that even more. So ty for that!

I'm glad that your extension is going uphill and thank you for updating regularly. If you have any more info about your process (how exactly do you collect user feedback (emails, chats, etc.), at what point would you say you have reached PMF? (What criteria have you set for this?)) I would be very happy about it!

-Peter

 

[BizyDad]

Following with interest.

 

[Tau Ceti]

End of the month update.

This month has been a roller coaster.

The month started well with lots of new users subscribing to the paid plan.
But then a lot of users decided to churn.

So I am ending the month with $612 MRR.

The total cost of running the app is $20 so, that gives me a profit margin 96.7%

Things I will need to pay for next month:
- GH copilot (currently paid by my day job but will switch to personal subscription next month) => $10/month
- Email marketing service => $20/month

The app is out of beta, I will remove all coupon codes from the site as it cheapens the brand and distorts the value offered by the product.

I am now beginning to build the Pro plan.
This will take about a month to build and test.

Once the Pro plan is out , I will focus on marketing and Branding for the next few months.

I need to publish a lot more articles to keep the SEO gods happy, I need to add proper documentation to the site to explain the functionality and cut down the time spent on support requests.

I also need to invest in a proper Youtube channel where I could showcase the functionality of the extension and use that to drive traffic to the app.

But that's for later, for now, getting the Pro Plan out and reaching the $1K MRR goal with a profit margin of 75% minimum are my only concerns.

The Pro plan will rely on a few other services:
- Node app hosting
- another service that I won't mention for privacy reason (Not GPT-4/CHAT-GPT)

My goal of reaching $10K MRR before the end of the year is still on the table and I am planning on pushing real hard towards this goal. Nothing will stop me from achieving it.

My goal is to replace my salary with this app. My current after-tax income is around 4K euros per month. To be able to pay myself the same amount of money I receive now, I need to pay the same amount in taxes as an independent worker.

With a $10K MRR and assuming $1K expenses per month, that bring my gross profit to $9K.

I then divide this amount by 2 and that is roughly how much I would take home each month after taxes.
But even though my pay won't change much, I will be building equity in the business.

If the business brings in $10K per month, I think I can safely value it at somewhere between $240K to $360K.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Do you have a Facebook group for free and/or paid users?

No I don't . I mostly talk to my users via email or video.

 

[MitchC]

Are there any influencers or gurus in your space?

Does the extension solve a problem that gurus solve or people search for?

YouTube how to videos and influencers could be a good promo method

The only paid extension I’ve ever paid for was recommended by a YouTube guru as part of his course

Nice work on sticking with it, I agree, extensions are an under served and overlooked opportunity

 

[Tau Ceti]

I imagine it depends on the extension. I'm curious now, I might do some Chrome Store research.

Absolutely it depends on the extension but at the end of the day, you need to create an MVP which means the bare minimum of the bare minimum.

Then you can add more features later. So the initial cost should be pretty low otherwise, that's not an MVP.