Just stick with it, don't quit. It's a hard journey - $30k in a single month... finally.

[Patrick Besong]

congrats! I've been selling my own s/w since 2010 and never did that well. best month I've ever had was a bit less than $12k, but now i'm lucky if I break $1k.

 

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[BreakAlive]

Obstacles:

• Starting with the wrong product. We had one product, it did alright and put us on the map, but it was mostly a flop as it didn't provide enough value by itself. We should have started with our current product first. However, a the time we didn't even have the skills or the team to do it, so I don't blame myself.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your story. It's very inspiring!

How did you realise your 1st product was a flop?

Couldn't it just have been because it wasn't marketed well enough? Or maybe it would have been successful with more of the right features?

How did you know that it was fundamentally flawed?

 

[BreakAlive]

It was a flop in the sense that It didn't generate a whole lot of revenue. The people who used it loved it and it taught us a lot about developing tools for our niche. In the grand scheme of things it just didn't provide "enough" value by itself as it only did one thing. We still sell it today, and we added it to a suite of products. It's much more useful now paired with our new flagship product.

Here's an analogy of our products: Worlds greatest french fries..

Our first product was merely a potato peeler, with just that, you're not gonna get too far when you are wanting to make the worlds greatest french fries as you're missing potatoes and everything else.

Our flagship (new) product is the potatoes, seasonings, and the fryer. First product + new product in a bundle = worlds greatest french fries.

We sell desktop software, so each of our products are separate/standalone. We had to build our newest product from scratch and it wouldn't have been worth it to put the two tools together into a single tool due to how fundamentally different they are. The great part is though, that one software can export something that the other software uses. Thus, we make more money selling them in a bundle.

Thanks for the reply.

That's interesting how you decided to develop a 2nd product even though your customers loved the 1st one.

How did you realise that your 1st product was just the potato peeler and not the potatoes, seasonings and the fryer? And I don't mean in hindsight, I mean back when you only had 1 product and nothing else to compare it with.

At what point did you say: "We need a brand new product"? And why didn't you make that sooner?

Most companies have little to no revenue at the beginning so it's hard to decide with that alone.

I'm asking because I'm in the situation now where I don't know if I should continue working on my product or look for a new problem to solve. Trying to figure out the thinking process behind knowing if a product is the potato peeler or something more.

 

[BreakAlive]

tl;dr: I know my market, and I had a gut feeling that it was time to start on our new product as i knew it had way more potential. We didn't start earlier because we didn't have the team/time/know how.

Since I know my market extremely well and actively communicate with our customers, I initially figured "Hey, product one solves a problem for me, so it has to do that for everyone else too". It turns out that not everyone had a use for what we were offering once we actually made it. Their specific situation might not have let them used our file format or they just weren't interested in it because they just didn't care about it. We tried selling it in all sorts of ways and created various product pages with some success. For some, they absolutely needed it and loved using it. It's just after two years of little revenue and non-stop grinding at it, you kinda figure out via a gut feeling that something has to change. It seems like you're already there in your case.

Back in January we were working on some new features for our first tool to really modernize the way people use it, but I pulled the plug on that because I felt that putting effort into this new product was a better use of our time. Product one in the end still produced the same thing, just in a different way, so it wasn't any more useful. For this new product, I've actually had plans for it since 2012, I just never knew how to act on it because it was incredibly difficult to solve. But now you can see that we've solved it haha.

The reason we didn't start this product sooner is simply because we didn't have the team to do it, and this new product is just leaps and bounds more complicated and technical. Shortly after deciding to do it though, we brought on some great new people and started building out our new product.

I just had to make the executive decision to change course, and it was the right move. Trust your gut.

It's fascinating getting to see behind the scene of your success. Thanks for sharing.

You knew your market extremely well and you grinded for 2 years trying to make it work. It makes sense why you were so confident in making the switch.

Glad to hear that it worked out so well for you. Hope to hear more success stories soon.

 

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[William Ainslie]

Well done, and thank you for sharing your struggles and insights.

 

[fastlaner_1992]

Congrats!

What business are you in?

Software

 

[loop101]

If this thread stops one person from quitting, then it's done its job.

I've been on my "fastlane" journey since 2012 and as of the past month I finally hit my goal, which was to make $30k in a single month.. and we actually surpassed this. Our goal now is $60k per month, then $90k, and so on.

Just a few months ago, we were weren't making much at all. I started this company in 2016, and fought tooth and nail to build a team so that we could get everything going. It was painful. I cried at times due to how hard it was to make our products and get our business off the ground. Things just weren't going my way for the majority of my journey. When you come across these barriers of entry, don't let them stop you. Just keep going. It's at points like these when everyone else quits, and it's why you have to keep going.

If I had quit during my hardest times, I wouldn't be here talking about our successes now. Since I'm working on an enterprise instead of a lifestyle business, its taken me years to get to this stage. Now we're ready to scale this thing and become the next leader in our industry. I had to work day jobs during the majority of my journey, and you have to do what you have to do. Don't be ashamed of that.

Any way, I don't really have any other lessons here except to keep going. If you keep inserting quarters into the gumball machine, eventually a gold one will come out.


MODERATOR NOTE
For those wondering how Nick got to this point, his progress thread is on the INSIDE. He's provided pages and pages of material about his struggle, YEARS long, and quite detailed. So if Nick isn't being very forthcoming in this particular thread, it's not that he isn't willing. He's done so on his progress thread which is on the Inside and not indexable by Google.

Can you say what tools you use to make your software? I ask because I have been so focused on web and mobile stuff, I have not thought much about native desktop apps. I assume for Mac it would be Xcode/ObjC or Xcode/Swift, and for Windows it would be VS/C#?

 

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[LegendBorne 6]

This is gold. I'm not in the softwares field but most of your points above fits every start-ups.
Thank you for sharing

These points are invaluable as so many instances people ask these questions. It is a lonely road when you follow your dream to say the least. Congratulations on your perseverance and intestinal fortitude remembering the Napoleon Hill story and not making the mistake of stopping 3 feet from Gold!

 

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[Patrick Besong]

Can you say what tools you use to make your software? I ask because I have been so focused on web and mobile stuff, I have not thought much about native desktop apps. I assume for Mac it would be Xcode/ObjC or Xcode/Swift, and for Windows it would be VS/C#?

I use XOJO to develop both my Mac and Windows software titles. I found Objective-C/Xcode/Swift and .Net beyond my coding abilities. XOJO is much more manageable and still provides a lot of capability. They have very good support thru their forum too.

 

[Sandy Dives]

Just read the thread and it's awesome!

I'm a software guy myself. How did you validate / decide to actually go down this road? I find myself having a lot of ideas but being afraid that it won't sell etc and that it would be a waste of time. The regular.

 

[Fox]

Got up to $50k now.. and within the next month or two should be at $75k due to our current trend. Don't quit!

Any updates? Can't wait to hear how things have been going.

 

[Patrick Besong]

Just read the thread and it's awesome!

I'm a software guy myself. How did you validate / decide to actually go down this road? I find myself having a lot of ideas but being afraid that it won't sell etc and that it would be a waste of time. The regular.

For me, I see if I can even build the app first, then i just put it up on the download sites and see what kind of reaction I get. I called my first app "beerware" (not publicly) because if figured even if i made enough to buy a case of beer per month it was a success. Since then I've been making thousands per month. At my main app's apex, I ended up making more than my full time job salary. Glad I didn't quit, though, as sales are down. I think some apps just run their course and are no longer that profitable for various reasons. I've sold to many well-known organizations, too: NASA, USPS (and about every other government agency), Apple, Epic Games, many colleges and universities, Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), Amazon, Starbucks, Netflix, the Cleveland Clinic, and many more. If i knew more about marketing i might be doing better. Pretty hard to wear so many hats.

 

[AppMan]

I've been on my "fastlane" journey since 2012 and as of the past month I finally hit my goal, which was to make $30k in a single month.. and we actually surpassed this. Our goal now is $60k per month, then $90k, and so on.

Sorry if this look rude, but do you have any evidence that support your claim of having a company that make 30K per month profit ?
such as company website ?

 

[Tzwick]

If this thread stops one person from quitting, then it's done its job.

I've been on my "fastlane" journey since 2012 and as of the past month I finally hit my goal, which was to make $30k in a single month.. and we actually surpassed this. Our goal now is $60k per month, then $90k, and so on.

Just a few months ago, we were weren't making much at all. I started this company in 2016, and fought tooth and nail to build a team so that we could get everything going. It was painful. I cried at times due to how hard it was to make our products and get our business off the ground. Things just weren't going my way for the majority of my journey. When you come across these barriers of entry, don't let them stop you. Just keep going. It's at points like these when everyone else quits, and it's why you have to keep going.

If I had quit during my hardest times, I wouldn't be here talking about our successes now. Since I'm working on an enterprise instead of a lifestyle business, its taken me years to get to this stage. Now we're ready to scale this thing and become the next leader in our industry. I had to work day jobs during the majority of my journey, and you have to do what you have to do. Don't be ashamed of that.

Any way, I don't really have any other lessons here except to keep going. If you keep inserting quarters into the gumball machine, eventually a gold one will come out.


MODERATOR NOTE
For those wondering how Nick got to this point, his progress thread is on the INSIDE. He's provided pages and pages of material about his struggle, YEARS long, and quite detailed. So if Nick isn't being very forthcoming in this particular thread, it's not that he isn't willing. He's done so on his progress thread which is on the Inside and not indexable by Google.

New guy here -

Thanks for this! I'm about 9 months into a new business and I have definitely cried, glad i'm not the only one. We stick at it, although it does sometimes feel as though we take more losses than wins. It's funny, already on the micro scale, to see what people say - "Oh wow - that's happened fast" and yet they don't see the three failures, thousands of dollars spent and losses before that small tiny win.

 

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[rocket99]

Way to persevere. Your story resonates with me and I'm sure many others on here, especially about the crying part. Been there and there is nothing that tests your will and desire more than moments like that.

 

[AstonMartinOne77]

Hi @Ravens_Shadow,

First of all, Congratulations on your outsanding success !!

I do have a few questions if you want to answer.

From what I understand you're a software engineer, I'm also an software engineer.

How did you find your idea of your productocracy ?

I'm trying to find an unmet need or to improve an existing product and I haven't been able to for now. I'm still looking ?

1) How did you find your productocracy opportunity ? (unmet need or product to improve)
Everything goes so fast in the software industry and everything is so bleeding edge, so finding an opportunity of unmet need or improving existing product is especially hard when these big companies (like Microsoft, Google, etc) have a better position of listening market needs)

2) If you are a programmer, why didn't code your software product by yourself ?

If both of these questions have been answered in your Progress Thread on the inside, let me know so I can subscribe and read.

Thanks and congrats again !

 

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[Vasudev Soni]

If this thread stops one person from quitting, then it's done its job.

I've been on my "fastlane" journey since 2012 and as of the past month I finally hit my goal, which was to make $30k in a single month.. and we actually surpassed this. Our goal now is $60k per month, then $90k, and so on.

Just a few months ago, we were weren't making much at all. I started this company in 2016, and fought tooth and nail to build a team so that we could get everything going. It was painful. I cried at times due to how hard it was to make our products and get our business off the ground. Things just weren't going my way for the majority of my journey. When you come across these barriers of entry, don't let them stop you. Just keep going. It's at points like these when everyone else quits, and it's why you have to keep going.

If I had quit during my hardest times, I wouldn't be here talking about our successes now. Since I'm working on an enterprise instead of a lifestyle business, its taken me years to get to this stage. Now we're ready to scale this thing and become the next leader in our industry. I had to work day jobs during the majority of my journey, and you have to do what you have to do. Don't be ashamed of that.

Any way, I don't really have any other lessons here except to keep going. If you keep inserting quarters into the gumball machine, eventually a gold one will come out.


MODERATOR NOTE
For those wondering how Nick got to this point, his progress thread is on the INSIDE. He's provided pages and pages of material about his struggle, YEARS long, and quite detailed. So if Nick isn't being very forthcoming in this particular thread, it's not that he isn't willing. He's done so on his progress thread which is on the Inside and not indexable by Google.

Congrats buddy. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do right now, growing a software company.

Whatever happens, I won’t give up. Thanks for the motivation.

 

[Isaac Odongo]

Definitely a productocracy, and I could see that, which is another reason I kept going forward.

A clear vision there and mission. You knew exactly what problem you were solving. You were sure it existed and needed a solution. You saw yourself as the guy who could bring that solution and you went ahead and made it reality.

A clear vision and mission will save one from nomadic entrepreneurship.

 

[Jon822]

Man you have no idea how inspiring this post is right now. I'm really impatient and constantly questioning whether or not I pull the plug or continue. Appreciate you making this thread.

 

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