[PROGRESS THREAD] Finding "product market fit"

[uhhfeef]

This skill will serve you well, especially as you scale. It can be a force, if you also have the capability of technical + product creation (even if they are not your favorites).

Oh yea I love building products, I would just like to outsource the technical stuff to, lets say, a co-founder so that I can focus in on what my strengths are and accelerate the growth of the product.

Thank you! I hope I get to that point as soon as I can

 

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[uhhfeef]

Update​

Chrome accepted my extension and it's currently published! I wasn't expecting it to take less than a day to get published because last time it took a week only to get rejected.

What I did the past few days:
1. Used theodinproject to learn React basics and GPT to help me wherever I get stuck with challenges or anything else.
2. Created a simple demo video to show what the extension does currently and uploaded it to the official youtube I created for the app. I used this as a demo for the extension in the webstore.
3. Uploaded to chrome web store. The main issue with Chromes policies is that whatever permissions you use while building your manifest file, Chrome auto picks it up and asks you to specify why you want those specific permissions. I just gave the context to GPT and told what I need and it created the descriptions for me.

What I need to do in the coming days:
1. Find a way to extract usernames for people who download the extension as Chrome doesn't share.
2. Find a way to create a 15 day free trial period to charge 3$ / month after.
3. Create a website as a way to market and capture potential emails.
4. I think I should upload to ProductHunt as well

A bit confused and overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do.

 

[Spenny]

• A user recommended the app to his colleagues and his studio now uses the app as part of their workflow.
• 2 people reached out to me first without me having to pitch to them.

This is huge, a great sign you've got a superb product on your hands. It also feels absolutely amazing that you're the one providing the solution!

Problems:

• Getting the most out of user conversations
• Converting each user into a paid user

I have some ideas that come to mind:

1. I think just interacting, human to human, is good. People often will mention what they find issues with - I emailed someone who found my website that wasn't SEO-optimised and asked him how he found me. He was searching for a product that didn't exist, mine was the closest, but it gave me the idea for a new product.
2. The conversions will come if the solution is potent enough, IMO. Even if they don't buy, they still may remember it if someone has that problem. I've found that generally being nice, and not too sales-y comes across well to people & they recommend you.

It's awesome to see you publish, too. Very exciting. Keep going mate.

 

[uhhfeef]

This is huge, a great sign you've got a superb product on your hands. It also feels absolutely amazing that you're the one providing the solution!

Thank you so much!

I have some ideas that come to mind:

1. I think just interacting, human to human, is good. People often will mention what they find issues with - I emailed someone who found my website that wasn't SEO-optimised and asked him how he found me. He was searching for a product that didn't exist, mine was the closest, but it gave me the idea for a new product.
2. The conversions will come if the solution is potent enough, IMO. Even if they don't buy, they still may remember it if someone has that problem. I've found that generally being nice, and not too sales-y comes across well to people & they recommend you.

Thanks alot for your insights.

Sometimes though its hard to get what you want from most people. It's not like they're lying its just that the idea of who they are is not accurate so they end up telling you things which they would like to do and not what they actually do at the moment. It's a bit tricky.

For now I have to focus on finding out what works and doubling down on it, conversions will come later.

It's awesome to see you publish, too. Very exciting. Keep going mate.

Appreciate it man <3 , I was super nervous because of how strict chrome is haha

 

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[uhhfeef]

So once it got published a few things happened.

1. Sent it out to all my current users. Nobody could use it except me. About 2 hours of panic ensued, solved the issue and repackaged it.
2. A couple users use only firefox and they wouldn't move to chrome just for my extension. Funny thing is I use firefox myself but I thought chrome was more popular.
3. It looks completely different on Mac for whatever reason, and I worked closely with one of my early adopters who was kind enough to share videos and insights as to what hes able to see. It's still unclear to me why Mac sees something else compared to Windows.

What I aim to do in the next few days:

1. Figure out how google analytics works and how I could integrate that with the extension so that I can track with unbiased feedback about how users actually use it.
2. Once that's done, find a way to A/B test rigorously as I have a couple features in mind.
3. Use Lean Startup methodology which is to get feedback, create hypothesis, test hypothesis, experiment and find what works, double down.

I really believe in and I'm a huge fan of Eric Ries's book, The Lean Startup; the story of IMVU and how they pivoted from 0 interest to millions of users is always inspiring to me and makes me believe that anyone can do this with focused effort. So I want to incorporate the techniques used in his book to build this thing.

I just need to get a solid understanding of JS so that I can see these things through as fast as I can. Really grateful for the odin project.

 

[amp0193]

Sent it out to all my current users. Nobody could use it except me. About 2 hours of panic ensued, solved the issue and repackaged it.

Wouldn't be an early launch without some drama!

Congrats on putting it out there and getting user feedback.

Now is where the real work begins.

 

[uhhfeef]

I connected the extension to google analytics to check and validate my hypotheses.

Good new and bad news.

Good news, it was a pain in the a$$ to setup but I got it connected and it shows me each time my users click a button. Which is really cool. (I wonder how much data we give away unknowingly..)

Bad news, I'm not seeing as much activity as I had expected. I did set it up 2 days before though, so I shouldn't keep my expectations high. Chances are their extension hasn't updated to the latest version, but that would also mean they haven't restarted Chrome.

Here's what I'm going to do:

1. Create the new features that I think my users already enjoyed using with my desktop app. Since my extension is the very first MVP, it does only one thing, so adding the new features might increase usage.
2. Once that's done, charge 3$ monthly. I cannot skip this step anymore. Getting tired of my users "validating" the idea when I just don't see it reflecting on GA. (Hoping somebody keeps me accountable to charge users.)
3. Watch Andy Blacks videos and read his threads here to figure out how to use Google Ads to get more users.
4. Note how many users end up paying and using it.
5. If fruitful, go all out with GA and testing my hypotheses.
6. If not, idk. Move on. Or connect GA to my desktop application. We'll see.

This is the only way I get to know if what I'm creating is actually valuable and if I should spend anymore time on this.

It's really frustrating when you're bombarded with nice messages from random people but its not really clear if they actually use it on a day to day basis.

As you can probably tell, motivations at an all time low. But I hope to get my answers soon.

Either pivot or leave this dormant in Chrome Web Store.

 

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[uhhfeef]

Created the new feature and made a separate file for that so that I can track and test my assumption.

Extension version: 0.1.0
User Base is currently increasing.
Downloads per page view is sitting at 10% which is nice.

The assumptions:

1. Users need the new feature.
2. Users prefer a feature over the other

How would I test these:

1. Find the retention rate of the feature. If users keep coming back, that means it's important to them.
2. Track and compare the events from the 2 features, if there's a clear distinction between the 2 then I'd have to think about removing one of them. If both are somewhat equal, then incorporate both features together as that shows both are equally important.

The cool thing about Google Anlaytics is a lot of metrics are tracked automatically. The ones you need though need to get triggered each time you want to track an event, for example, button clicks, so you need to manually configure that. GA documentation here.

Here's what I did the past few days:

• Reached out to 2 mods of a huge discord server of more than 10,000 members, with a lot of big names in it
• Had an awesome chat with both of them and got approvals for posting in the group
• Ended up getting 0 reactions or comments hahah
• Created the new feature and got it connected to Google Analytics. Deployed the script to my Cloud so that it always runs.
• Revamped the UI. It looks really nice now imo.

What I plan to do:

• Test and measure events based on user clicks to understand behavior
• Iterate accordingly
• Work on the other feature in the meantime
• Reach out to even more discord group mods

Also change in plan for this:

Watch Andy Blacks videos and read his threads here to figure out how to use Google Ads to get more users.

I can't be bothered figuring out GA for now and I don't want to spend just yet. I need to establish a need first based on the few amount of users I do have.

I'll keep you guys updated with the new plan when I do it. It's a bit more exciting than simply running ads.

 

[amp0193]

Ended up getting 0 reactions or comments hahah

Give it a few days or a week, then try posting again with something completely different.

If it was a few sentences of text the first time, maybe try a gif of the extension in action, showing the main benefit. Something eye-catching. If that doesn't work, maybe link in a youtube video of you demo-ing it.

Or instead of telling them about it, you could try asking a question (questions get more engagement)... something like "Would anyone here find something like X useful?" "Do you guys think something like X be a game changer?"

Or maybe you have some sort of enticing offer: "I'm developing a thing that solves [pain point x]. I thought that might be useful to you guys in discord x, so giving first 10 people to respond to this message free access for a year in exchange for feedback."

Or maybe you "borrow some trust" and convince one of the mods or thought leaders in the group to post on your behalf (paid sponsored post, or otherwise). More people will pay attention to what they say than what you say.

Or maybe a meme: something like “MFW I realized people are still doing it the X way, when they could be doing Y”….


Sometimes the product and the audience is the right fit, but you have to figure out the messaging that gets their attention.


Keep at it.

 

[uhhfeef]

Give it a few days or a week, then try posting again with something completely different.

If it was a few sentences of text the first time, maybe try a gif of the extension in action, showing the main benefit. Something eye-catching. If that doesn't work, maybe link in a youtube video of you demo-ing it.

Or instead of telling them about it, you could try asking a question (questions get more engagement)... something like "Would anyone here find something like X useful?" "Do you guys think something like X be a game changer?"

Or maybe you have some sort of enticing offer: "I'm developing a thing that solves [pain point x]. I thought that might be useful to you guys in discord x, so giving first 10 people to respond to this message free access for a year in exchange for feedback."

Or maybe you "borrow some trust" and convince one of the mods or thought leaders in the group to post on your behalf (paid sponsored post, or otherwise). More people will pay attention to what they say than what you say.


Sometimes the product and the audience is the right fit, but you have to figure out the messaging that gets their attention.


Keep at it.

Thank you so much for the great suggestions.

The offer one sounds really good, might try that!

Getting a mod to post for me would be fantastic! That would also prove that they mean what they say when they compliment.

I actually did have a mod who did that for me for a relatively small group but yes he gave me access and its free impressions for me. He did end up becoming my first sale, so I'm grateful for him.

And yes you're right, convincing a group of people to use the product involves first getting the messaging right. Alongside with that, to find pain points that would help me build better versions that provide enough value where it makes sense to become a user.

 

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[amp0193]

Thank you so much for the great suggestions.

The offer one sounds really good, might try that!

Getting a mod to post for me would be fantastic! That would also prove that they mean what they say when they compliment.

I actually did have a mod who did that for me for a relatively small group but yes he gave me access and its free impressions for me. He did end up becoming my first sale, so I'm grateful for him.

And yes you're right, convincing a group of people to use the product involves first getting the messaging right. Alongside with that, to find pain points that would help me build better versions that provide enough value where it makes sense to become a user.

Limited access offers get people off the fence too, because they don’t want to miss out.

In the long run, a great product, that solves a big enough need will be easy to market and sell. But the best marketing in the world is still going to be an uphill battle if the product sucks or isn’t that much better than alternatives.

The tough part is getting the first users to try it so that word out of mouth and testimonials and credibility can spread.

 

[uhhfeef]

Small update.

Active Users: 21
Version: 0.2.2

I added the 2 features and got okay-ish response from the community but I still don't see a big enough change in my analytics given that I'm trying to build an extension people have to rely on.

Figured I'm doing something wrong so I'm trying to test my assumptions even further. Do people even want to use the extension? If so, how many times a week is the average amount I should expect? What kind of metrics I should track in order to help me understand if I'm doing something correct or not?

To answer these questions I decided to build a feature where instead of even opening the extension, it will show up within the page itself on the click of a button. I'm trying to make it as lazy-proof as I can.

I need to figure out the correct metrics for what I build and not just are-they-using-or-not metrics. I need it to show me if there's a change related to the updates that I do.

Gona spend my time trying to understand how I can track retention metrics.

Anyway, been thinking about this speech Steve Jobs gave at Stanford:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

 

[buscus.stan]

hey uhhfeef, good update!

To answer these questions I decided to build a feature where instead of even opening the extension, it will show up within the page itself on the click of a button. I'm trying to make it as lazy-proof as I can.

I don't know your traffic and usage, but did you consider adding A/B testing? You need some decent usage to be statistically significant, but it will surely help you understand better your users and what to build.
For example, the feature that you want to build, is there a way you could show it only to half your audience and measure if your stats have improved. (I have very very limited experience with chrome extensions, but since it's javascript, html and the rest, surely there are tools to help with AB testing)

I added the 2 features and got okay-ish response from the community but I still don't see a big enough change in my analytics given that I'm trying to build an extension people have to rely on.

Some years ago I worked with a product manager that had an interesting approach to building new features. Instead of building it outright, we would build a shell, the minimum that we could show a user and gauge their interest. A lot of times, this minimum was a simple button, that when clicked would open a modal saying "Wait! we can't do that yet, but thanks for your interest, we'll let you know when it's ready". There were many features that never passed this test, even though I would have bet the users will love them. It is a bit unorthodox but it will save you a lot of time and money, plus you would build only what matters to your users. In the end, it's all about them, right?

 

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[uhhfeef]

Thanks for your reply.

I don't know your traffic and usage, but did you consider adding A/B testing? You need some decent usage to be statistically significant, but it will surely help you understand better your users and what to build.
For example, the feature that you want to build, is there a way you could show it only to half your audience and measure if your stats have improved. (I have very very limited experience with chrome extensions, but since it's javascript, html and the rest, surely there are tools to help with AB testing)

I'll have to look into A/B testing but its not really as straight forward as other methods as it is with Chrome. Definitely something worth looking into though. My problem still lies in the amount of people that do use the extension and its still very low.

Some years ago I worked with a product manager that had an interesting approach to building new features. Instead of building it outright, we would build a shell, the minimum that we could show a user and gauge their interest. A lot of times, this minimum was a simple button, that when clicked would open a modal saying "Wait! we can't do that yet, but thanks for your interest, we'll let you know when it's ready". There were many features that never passed this test, even though I would have bet the users will love them. It is a bit unorthodox but it will save you a lot of time and money, plus you would build only what matters to your users. In the end, it's all about them, right?

This is a fantastic idea! Thanks for suggesting this!!
This way I could track percentage of users interested in the idea and build it accordingly. I think I could def do that instead of building it first.

 

[Andy Black]

This has been a great read. I'll refer some of my developer friends here who get hung up on coding and don't engage the market enough.

Upgraded to Noteable.

Have you made a sale yet? I saw where someone said they'd buy but don't know if they actually did.

 

[uhhfeef]

This has been a great read. I'll refer some of my developer friends here who get hung up on coding and don't engage the market enough.

Upgraded to Noteable.

Have you made a sale yet? I saw where someone said they'd buy but don't know if they actually did.

Hey Andy, thanks so much!

Yes I did get a sale, only one for now though.

Thanks for the kind words but as of yet, I'm still figuring out the why's of my extension and trying to understand what it is my users really want out of it. I have a couple "active users" as of now (they may very well be bots) and its increasing at a pretty steady pace however I'm not seeing enough engagement to make informed opinions.

The trickiest part is figuring out what validation actually is, and what users actually need instead of what they say they need. I realized solving problems comes very intuitively to me but I have a lot to learn on this Customer Discovery topic.

As I learn more about where to take the direction of the extension, I'll introduce revenue streams but for now I would say I'm still in testing phase.

 

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[Andy Black]

I don't know if this helps at all. Someone shared it with me this morning:

How to launch a new product or service in this video | Daniel Priestley posted on the topic | LinkedIn

There's a trick great entrepreneurs use to launch a new product or service (or refresh an existing one). In this quick video, I share with you a simple… | 112 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

 

[uhhfeef]

I don't know if this helps at all. Someone shared it with me this morning:

How to launch a new product or service in this video | Daniel Priestley posted on the topic | LinkedIn

There's a trick great entrepreneurs use to launch a new product or service (or refresh an existing one). In this quick video, I share with you a simple… | 112 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Thanks for the video!

I've been able to get some interest in various groups but now it comes down to downloading and actually using the extension.

 

[amp0193]

Some years ago I worked with a product manager that had an interesting approach to building new features. Instead of building it outright, we would build a shell, the minimum that we could show a user and gauge their interest. A lot of times, this minimum was a simple button, that when clicked would open a modal saying "Wait! we can't do that yet, but thanks for your interest, we'll let you know when it's ready". There were many features that never passed this test, even though I would have bet the users will love them. It is a bit unorthodox but it will save you a lot of time and money, plus you would build only what matters to your users. In the end, it's all about them, right?

Great idea.

My counterpoint to this is that sometimes users don't know what they want until they see it fully fleshed out.

Or you get edge case customers submitting feedback that has needs that differ from the core user group.

I will sometimes gauge user feedback during development, and other times I just create the solution that I think will solve their need and see how it goes.

 

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[Andy Black]

Check out my Facebook timeline for when I occasionally post hand-raising threads. Some are just to guage interest and get into conversation. Some end up making initial sales pretty quick.

I document some of it here:

MARKETING - Just start already

It was just after midnight on 10-Nov-20 and I was annoyed with myself for not starting a particular project I'd been thinking about for a few weeks. I decided to quickly post a short note to my Facebook profile before hitting the hay. At the time I had 880 friends on Facebook and had been a...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[uhhfeef]

Check out my Facebook timeline for when I occasionally post hand-raising threads. Some are just to guage interest and get into conversation. Some end up making initial sales pretty quick.

I document some of it here:

MARKETING - Just start already

It was just after midnight on 10-Nov-20 and I was annoyed with myself for not starting a particular project I'd been thinking about for a few weeks. I decided to quickly post a short note to my Facebook profile before hitting the hay. At the time I had 880 friends on Facebook and had been a...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Thank you! I'll check it out

 

[buscus.stan]

Great idea.

My counterpoint to this is that sometimes users don't know what they want until they see it fully fleshed out.

Or you get edge case customers submitting feedback that has needs that differ from the core user group.

I will sometimes gauge user feedback during development, and other times I just create the solution that I think will solve their need and see how it goes.

I agree with you, as I mentioned, this is a bit of risky and unorthodox approach. I have another one With one of my clients, we were brainstorming ideas of features to add to their platform. Then, when he was doing sales calls, he would sell those features even though we didn't have them yet. Then when he got one/two clients interested, we'd build them.

But, not all products and not all features are born equal. These approaches work for some products, some features. Sometimes you just have to build and trust your judgement. But sometimes you can try some creative ways to discover what to build

 

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[uhhfeef]

Lil update

Commandment of Control kicking my a$$ atm.

Chrome is killing me with these rejections. I tried to fix the issues twice but it got rejected both times. Sent them a support request asking what I could do from my end to rectify the issue, because it's not clear to me why its been rejected.

My extension is still up and running fine but the main feature that I really want to track is being withheld since it's more of a security risk.

I have to play by Chromes rules for now and see what I can do to get it published asap.

In the meanwhile, I designed images that would go on my Web store page to try and get more people to click on the download button. Gona track the amount of people that view the page versus the ones who download it and see if the changes I did made a difference.

I stumbled into Google Keyword Planner and took a quick look at the keywords related to what I'm building.

Avg. monthly searches	Three month change	YoY change	Competition
5000000​	0%​	0%​	High

Needless to say, there is a clear need for this kind of thing and competition is high as well. I'm pretty aware of this and atm there is one company that is ruling the entire market. But I want to try and segment it for my particular niche and establish my solution as the main go-to.

 

[uhhfeef]

Update

It got accepted by Chrome!! I'm so grateful.

Now we wait a week to know if we actually made life easy or not.

While I'm gona be on a "break", I'm going to try doing research on other ideas I have. I'm gona be bored so why not. Plus I want to learn more on the customer discovery side of things, speak to more people and get better at that skill.

Either that, or learn how to modularize the code and replace my existing all over the place code.

 

[EL_00]

I was building an education tool for a specific niche, with a problem that I currently struggle with.

I've always wanted to create a progress thread since I started working on this but never got around to it.
Thanks @Andy Black for the advice on LinkedIn! : )

Progress so far:

• Built 3 MVP's so far, all to test if the idea builds interest in people and if they'd want to use it:
  • Started with an MVP that had only 1 functionality. Reached out to friends at first. I wanted to see if they were receptive to the idea
  • They were (Adobe is now implementing this feature for their own website btw).
  • Reached out to a bunch of people and tried getting them to use the MVP
  • They liked it as well and I instantly started building better versions
  • Second MVP, added a bunch of core features that I wanted to test, they had a bunch of feedback and I've been iterating ever since.
  • Third MVP, made the UI better and added a few more features for them that they were happy about. All this with GPT4 because I don't know how to code nor do I like it.

View attachment 51082View attachment 51083View attachment 51084View attachment 51085

• Learned how to market it myself:
  • I used cold outreach methods through Instagram, Discord to get people to use it.
  • The crazy thing is, and I'm not sure if the people in my niche are just "nice", but i only have about 15-20% rejection/ ignored rate so far.
  • Here's how i cold DM someone:
    1. Compliment them (genuinely, fake feels very obvious!), if you cant genuinely compliment, relate with them.
    2. Show them how you can provide value to their life and what you are working on in the most concise way possible. Most people are busy / lazy and don't want to read 5 paras about what you're up to even if it provides value to them.
    3. Lastly you have 2 options:
       1. If they're someone well known in that niche, ask them for their opinion on it.
       2. If they're anyone else, ask them if they know anyone who may be interested in using it. If they want it, they'll ask, if they don't they'll point you to someone or some group
  • This method has worked wonders for me. I've reached out to well known people within my niche and app developers as well, who have been more than willing to give their insights on it.
  • Just reach out! Most people are willing to help you as long as you provide value through the conversation.
  • Make sure you don't "over-sell" and push them a lot which will leave you on read.

• Figuring out GPT4:
  • I have a feeling most people are still sleeping on this. This is THE BEST tool out there and will help you solve any problem you have
  • How? All you have to do is provide as much context as you can. I mentioned in my other post how I get GPT to answer exactly what I need in this comment. I've used GPT4 entirely to create this app and if you're wondering it wasn't as easy as "build it for me looool"
  • Don't think of it as a machine that does xyz thing, think of it as a clueless robot with unlimited information.
  • Best way I've found to use GPT is to divide and create multiple chats each with context of their own so that it doesn't end up confusing itself (which it does) or forget the context (which it also does and is very annoying), with the added benefit of having it organized.
  • That's how i was able to create multiple features with GPT and then connect it all using python

• Challenges I'm currently facing:
  • Although people have showed interest in the app I realized its just a "nice to have" and doesn't solve a need as such. And if I want product market fit, I have to solve a need.
  • Most people have other means to solve that problem and a user told me its replaceable even if other methods are annoying or awkward (ouch)
  • Haven't got a sale yet so my users don't have "skin in the game"
  • Alot of users say they want something but it just isn't important enough to waste time building and implementing it in the product.
  • Feedback I receive, although very positive, isn't enough for users to keep using it on a repetitive basis.

• Moving forward:
  • I'm tracking down teachers that may find use to this tool and get their insight on it, and maybe even use it for teaching.
  • If its genuinely not useful for anyone else (although it is for me) I will pivot, keep certain features and target a different market that may have more of a use for it.

I won't have weekly updates but I will update whenever I figure out something or have value to provide.
Hope this stuff resonates with you, and I hope you join me on this journey!

Hi,

I'm maybe not a teacher but I'm a tutor. So I could help on giving some tips for your product.

I also did ever win business plan competition (only once hahaha) but I did build an app mvp too with figma. Only the UI/ux.

Here's the thing, teacher mostly use laptop or if we force to use handphone I don't want to install a new app. It waste my phone space, low engagement, and just hate to wait for it to load on my old Android phone. In my country teachers are not rich from teaching, so we could only use what we already have.

Rather I open to web app. Look Google classroom, easy to search, easy to navigate, but low engagement so people still need face2face teaching or zoom.

 

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[uhhfeef]

This is starting to feel more and more like a side project.

My goal now will be to exclusively try and understand what problems the people within my niche face instead of assuming my solution solves a problem that I think they face. In other words, the next few days/weeks/months my only goal will be to try and understand users.

I do really believe in the extension and I do think this can take off. I just don't know what direction to take it because there's so many of them.

In any case, installs are increasing pretty steadily. Current active users: 30

I've learned a few things about Customer Discovery techniques the past few days since I've been focused on trying to find problems. (Interviewed more than 25 people for the other idea I had to get better at this.)

If anyone's interested I can drop my insights.

 

[uhhfeef]

Update

Workload at office has increased, I'm now handling 3 projects and told my boss to reduce it to 1, but he seems hellbent to have me handle these many projects.

In any case, I'm trying to make the most use of my time off work and build when I get the chance.

Received a nice lil message from someone in a group I'm in which motivated me to setup payments.



I looked up ways to set payment up and I came across ExtPay. Incredibly useful website, looks like they made configuring payments for extensions easier. I'm not sure how it is without this but I'm assuming it was a hassle. They have an indiehackers page as well if anyone's interested.

I set it up in my code which was pretty easy, but I'm now facing issues connecting Stripe to ExtPay (which is a prerequisite). In the country I reside in, while setting up a Stripe page I also need to put in a Company Registration Number which I don't have.

Googled around and it seems to be around 1k $ to get your business license here. Thing is I don't want to set up as a business just yet. Especially since I'm testing things and I'm not even sure if this is something that has an ROI. Stripes test mode also requires me to have this license number.

Any ideas about any other ways I could set payments up?

 

[buscus.stan]

Update

Workload at office has increased, I'm now handling 3 projects and told my boss to reduce it to 1, but he seems hellbent to have me handle these many projects.

In any case, I'm trying to make the most use of my time off work and build when I get the chance.

Received a nice lil message from someone in a group I'm in which motivated me to setup payments.

View attachment 52576

I looked up ways to set payment up and I came across ExtPay. Incredibly useful website, looks like they made configuring payments for extensions easier. I'm not sure how it is without this but I'm assuming it was a hassle. They have an indiehackers page as well if anyone's interested.

I set it up in my code which was pretty easy, but I'm now facing issues connecting Stripe to ExtPay (which is a prerequisite). In the country I reside in, while setting up a Stripe page I also need to put in a Company Registration Number which I don't have.

Googled around and it seems to be around 1k $ to get your business license here. Thing is I don't want to set up as a business just yet. Especially since I'm testing things and I'm not even sure if this is something that has an ROI. Stripes test mode also requires me to have this license number.

Any ideas about any other ways I could set payments up?

hey hey,
that's a beautiful message. It's so nice to get some recognition, congrats!

regarding setting up a company, the main advantage is the limited liability. I'm assuming your extension doesn't pose much risk to the users, so it's not that important. Is there a way in which you can set up a self-employment or some other type of fiscal entity.

regarding the payments, I understand it's nice to have everything automated and easy to use, but do you need a full integration right now? Can you collect payment through Paypal for example and manually toggle a flag for the paid users?

 

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[uhhfeef]

hey hey,
that's a beautiful message. It's so nice to get some recognition, congrats!

Thank you so much!

regarding setting up a company, the main advantage is the limited liability. I'm assuming your extension doesn't pose much risk to the users, so it's not that important. Is there a way in which you can set up a self-employment or some other type of fiscal entity.

The self employment section itself asks for this license number.

regarding the payments, I understand it's nice to have everything automated and easy to use, but do you need a full integration right now? Can you collect payment through Paypal for example and manually toggle a flag for the paid users?

Ah I'm not really sure how that's done so I'll have to do some research. But I was thinking of a subscription type of payment, does that work in paypal as well? I was just aware of Stripe.

 

[buscus.stan]

The self employment section itself asks for this license number.

ah, I see. Can you talk to an accountant? There should be a form of fiscal entity that is not very expensive. In all the countries I lived in, there was something. In the end, what the government wants is to tax you. You could try contacting Stripe support, they are very helpful

Ah I'm not really sure how that's done so I'll have to do some research. But I was thinking of a subscription type of payment, does that work in paypal as well? I was just aware of Stripe.

As far as I know, PayPal has subscriptions. And they accept credit card payments. They also have a Stripe competitor "braintree payments". But I'm not sure of their requirements for subscriptions. They might ask for some license number too. When I integrated them, it was always through either a limited-liability or a self-employment. I used both Paypal and Braintree in the past, but Stripe is the gold standard.