From bankruptcy to $100K ARR with Calendesk - AMA

Hey, thanks! here are the answers:

1. Pricing

We started modestly with pricing at $29, and have since made only one increase. I never intended to offer a cheap product, so it's likely that we'll be implementing more price hikes in the near future.

2. B2B

Our primary target has always been businesses. We have a diverse range of customers from solo entrepreneurs to large companies with over 150 employees. However, our ideal customer is a business with approximately 50 employees.

Calendesk is tailored to meet the needs of businesses, and this focus inevitably influences our pricing strategy (or it will :))

3. Traction / New Paying Customers

We began with a straightforward approach - we created a landing page with a clear CTA, and launched a Google Ads campaign. This strategy did bring in some customers, but it wasn't really profitable. However, it did help us understand our customers' needs better and helped with product improvements - at least someone was using the platform and could leave feedback.

SEO was super important for me, even though it's typically a slow process to see results. A significant advantage for us was being based in Poland, where the market is less crowded. It's more challenging to reach audiences in the UK, US, and other English-speaking countries, but we're certainly not giving up on our SEO efforts in these regions.

Other places we tried: Capterra, Bing - we still have some small campaigns running there.

4. No Free Users

Deciding not to offer free accounts turned out to be a great move for us. We had too many users who were reluctant to pay, and this became extremely frustrating. These users were consuming our time, particularly during onboarding, without contributing financially.

Maybe we did it the wrong way, no idea now, it's not sure if we won't try this again, but probably in a different way.

In the beginning, you need money, since I went bankrupt and money was important, I was doing everything to get paying customers.

Also, when we stopped offering free accounts, we noticed that the quality of our customer base improved significantly and we stopped serving annoying customers.

Thanks!

Well... what other choice did I have? :D The bankruptcy only motivated me more.

Thanks!

We target businesses and their needs. We have listened to first our customers and try to bring them the best experience they can have when it comes to scheduling appointments :)

How did we get the first customers?

We began with a straightforward approach - we created a landing page with a clear CTA, and launched a Google Ads campaign. This strategy did bring in some customers, but it wasn't really profitable. However, it did help us understand our customers' needs better and helped with product improvements - at least someone was using the platform and could leave feedback.

What do you guys do when you get in the danger zone of running out of cash?

thanks a lot! 🥰

Well... with something else, I would start the loop again. I wanted to finish as soon as possible the beta version and start selling it. Being focused is super important.

Thanks! Please search here for "first customers". There are a few answers here I already made about it.

haha, thanks! yeah, when I exit the company and have more time for it :D

Thanks!

It depends on what do think in terms of marketing.

We built a product page, ran ads, and contacted prospects. Nothing complex..

Thanks!

• almost none, this kind of product already existed, so I just wanted to take a bit of my cake.
• I wrote this in many comments here. Please search "first customer". Basically, Google Ads.
• SEO
• ~$115 and ~$529

Thank you!

1. I have a co-founder. I don't fully understand the question. I have invested my private money into the project for a long time. Just recently, the product started to pay back my loans.

2. I made a huge mistake here, burning a lot of cash. We kicked off the project with a team of 10, which included backend and frontend developers, iOS and Android developers, a DevOps expert, a marketing specialist, my co-founder, and myself. Currently, my co-founder and I manage the business fully, delegating tasks that aren't our strong suits. I oversee technical matters while my co-founder handles support and customer success.

I had to let the team go and personally take charge of product development. It was a tough lesson, but an invaluable one.

3. I'm a technical person, and I learn fast. Youtube, books, courses, mastermind groups, different products documentations, paid consultations, etc. a lot of sources to learn something new.

We began with a straightforward approach - we created a landing page with a clear CTA, and launched a Google Ads campaign. This strategy did bring in some customers, but it wasn't really profitable. However, it did help us understand our customers' needs better and helped with product improvements - at least someone was using the platform and could leave feedback.

In terms of development, definitely too much time. We have been building for over a year the first version, burning a lot of cash. We should start in the opposite way, sell first, build later.

I would start with the problem. What problem does your SaaS solve? Second, who is ready to pay to solve that problem?

Before building it, I would launch a simple landing page and try to convert the first signups - after signup, show info that the product is not ready yet, and we will let you know - at least you will see if someone wants to buy/use it.

Our initial launch strategy was simple - we set up a landing page and initiated a Google Ads campaign. This approach brought us positive results as we began to see visitor conversions. Later we used our phones and video meetings to talk to the customers.

Thanks!

yeah, definitely, if your product is not super easy to use, and customers often need support, make sure, you define it clearly in the pricing.

If I would do it again, I would probably drop the support for free users and clearly say that the support is only for premium ones.

for example, free users get only access to the knowledge base.

Or the second approach, the support response time could be a bit longer for free users - but inform that it's because you are a free user - this could convert.

thank you! ❤️

Thank you! ❤️

Absolutely agree with the types of users.
I'm in for that race to $1M ARR! Let's see who gets that free beer first! ;)

Thanks! I hope to see you building something amazing!

We kicked off the project with a team of 10, which included backend and frontend developers, iOS and Android developers, a DevOps expert, a marketing specialist, my co-founder, and myself. My co-founder and I currently manage the business, delegating tasks that aren't our strong suits. I oversee technical matters while my co-founder handles support and customer success.

The system architecture is a hybrid model, utilizing cloud services from Azure and AWS. We use PostgreSQL for our relational databases.

Our API was originally constructed using PHP Laravel, but we are progressively transitioning some components to Python.

The frontend has been developed using VueJs, supplemented with Vuetify. On mobile apps, we use Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android.

The beta version's development took over a year, my initial estimation was 3-5 months. Initially, I miscalculated the project's complexity and the management process.

Ultimately, I had to make the tough decision to let the team go and take on the challenge of completing the project myself.

I agree w Maciej suggestions.

For me, the most important question at the start of a "product journey" is the problem.
What problem are you solving? - to me this determines early on how successful you'll be, down the line.

A corollary to that is "your proximity" to that problem.
What is the distance between you and the problem, or how intimate are you w the problem.
That's why, as the YC guys often recommend, best is to solve a problem you yourself have ... so you become "customer zero" ... and who do you know best? Yourself.

Then all that's left is to hope that others have similar problems as the one you're solving ... and very crappy solutions ;)
(so they are desperately waiting for your solution)

Choose the problem you're solving wisely...

Hey,

What problem does it solve, who are the users, and where to find them? The three super important questions.

I would not build anything before trying to sell it first and finding potential customers.

You need to find your target group first and define your problem -> solution.

Solve a problem you yourself are having ... so even if nobody else buys, at least you solved your problem ;)

Persistence is key. If you're not immediately seeing profits or attracting customers, don't be disheartened. Instead, keep refining your product, engaging with customers, and testing new strategies. The journey to success is seldom easy or quick, but it's always worth the effort.

Before you invest time and resources into building something, try to sell it. Building may not be the most challenging aspect, but selling it certainly is. Developers often overlook this and become too focused on the building process, neglecting the importance of customer interaction and sales efforts.

Thank you a lot!

Thanks! No worries, I'm happy to share. In reality, the experience wasn't traumatic at all :) Money is simply a tool, and understanding this makes it easier to spend without worrying.

Even if you lose money, you don't lose the knowledge gained and the confidence that you can always change your situation. As an experienced Software Engineer, I was always confident that I could overcome any challenges quickly.

From my journey so far, there are a few key takeaways. Firstly, only hire when it's truly necessary and beneficial. Secondly, conserve your resources and spend wisely. The hardest part isn't building the product, but selling it. Finally, actively engage with your customers, seek their feedback, and focus on creating the best product for them rather than obsessing over competition.

Thanks! Nope, we are not hiring atm. We work only with freelancers for SEO, marketing, and UI/UX. Not enough of budget for hiring yet 😮‍💨

Thanks a lot. There is still so much to learn!

Well... I still had my credit cards, and there was no other way for me to proceed if I wanted to have a SaaS product. If I had given up, I would have had to wait, probably for years, for another opportunity. I was convinced I was making the right choice, and I just had to believe in it.

It took over a year to develop the project, but it was almost ready!

Thanks, Michael!

At the beginning, we didn't have a clear understanding of who our ideal customer was. We had to adjust and reevaluate to identify the most appropriate customer base. This necessitated several changes to our platform, and we're still adjusting as needed.

Our initial target audience was essentially a guess, and as it turned out, I was mistaken. We quickly shifted our focus from this initial group to a different set of customers.

As for the process of acquiring our first customers, I've explained this in the previous question:

3. Traction / New Paying Customers
   We began with a straightforward approach - we created a landing page with a clear CTA, and launched a Google Ads campaign. This strategy did bring in some customers, but it wasn't really profitable. However, it did help us understand our customers' needs better and helped with product improvements - at least someone was using the platform and could leave feedback.

SEO was super important for me, even though it's typically a slow process to see results. A significant advantage for us was being based in Poland, where the market is less crowded. It's more challenging to reach audiences in the UK, US, and other English-speaking countries, but we're certainly not giving up on our SEO efforts in these regions.

Other places we tried: Capterra, Bing - we still have some small campaigns running there.