Just launched on AppSumo 🚀
Early in 2019 I tried to reach out to AppSumo, the most popular daily deals site that's specifically for digitally delivered goods and services, in the hopes of gaining some momentum.
I was short on cash and paying customers.
I was desperate and the business really needed a boost.
Unfortunately they never contacted me back and based on the FAQ on their site, that's probably because they didn't feel that we were a good fit.
Did it hurt? Yes, a lot!
Did it make me think that we're not that good? Of course yes.
Did I think of giving up? Absolutely not!
I continued to do my thing and honestly I had forgotten about it until a few months ago I received the following email.
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The tables had turned and AppSumo was the one reaching out this time.
After months of preparation, we finally launched this Wednesday.
Moral of the story: Work so hard that those who once ignored or refused you, will come back knocking on your door.
Ervin, this is such a great story.
I've always asked myself how they select the products to feature on appsumo.
I think I will buy the LTD for my team.
Were are most of your sales coming from? Is it teams or individual users?
I didn't see Buffer or Hootsuite on that list, do you know why? In your opinion is it because they didn't offer a deal?
Keep it up :)
When I had the first call with them, I asked them how did they hear about us. It was thanks to the great reviews we have on Capterra.
It's a mix actually, but I don't know the ratio yet. I will do it once the campaign is over so that I can plan for the future.
Buffer and Hootsuite don't need AppSumo. They have enough customer base and investors. AppSumo is mostly for bootstrapped SaaS startups.
Nice man. I had a phone call with them. They are looking for more users on my end. I am focused on getting to 500 paying users then will go back to them for my online video editor https://storycreatorapp.com/demo
Focus on gathering reviews from your users. That's how AppSumo found us. By reading the reviews on Capterra.
congratulation
purchased!
Let me know what you think and thank you! 🙏
@kalemi19 I posted your app on some groups and the feedback that I got was 'I am pretty sure that we were told that it is better to use Facebook for scheduling. Facebook doesnt like external scheduling as much and will punish you.', 'Don’t know for sure, but I’ve heard that, e.g., Instagram, can tell if you’re using an app like that and may “punish” your post in terms of views, etc.' - do you have an opinion/perspective on this?
That has always been a controversy. Some say it will have a negative effect, some say it won't. Personally I haven't seen any punishment on both the work Pages and some personal Pages I use for fun.
For LinkedIn I can guarantee that there is no punishment. I always get 2-3x more views than the number of followers I have (2k).
I love this story :-) Really enjoy your brand identity and the explainer video! Well-deserved congrats.
Congratulations Ervin :)
I'm planning to integrate Pikaso with social media management tools like Publer. Are you interested in that?
It does sound interesting and it will go great with the auto-share feature we offer (i.e. post in one place and have the post automatically shared to the other accounts you manage).
I will discuss it with the team and with the user base. If the interest is high, I will reach out. Thanks.
Great! Always like to see these kind of stories.
Kudos to you for not giving up!
This is amazing! Congrats! How long did AppSumo take to make your product live after they contacted you?
The whole thing took around 2 months. This email was in mid-February. A few of their beta testers tested the app. I had several calls in late February to discuss on the agreement for the deal, then we had a couple of deadlines until mid-March. It was a lot of work from both parts.
Luck comes to the prepared. Good grit Ervin
Congratulations :clap:
This is awesome.
Forgive me but this sounds horribly contrived (and sponsored by Appsumo). "Not a great fit" but when you are, you give up 70% of your revenue share??? Reminds me of the hedge funder seeders I used to know. "We'll take the majority of the cut and you can grow profits from others by being affiliated with us. Nah, I will pass.
I don't like it either, but they have the luxury to charge that much. The community they have built is huge and very influencing. They also have a large network of affiliates.
I heard they’re petty aggressive in the cut they take of the revenue. How do you feel about it?
A whooping 70%, but I think it's a great longterm investment. Considering that probably half of what they take goes into ads and other costs, it's not that bad.
I just got an email from Google that our page clicks increased by 325%.
Wow... that's even crazier than I thought! 😱
People think the "Apple tax" is harsh... sheesh.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but my one friend who has been featured repeatedly on there didn't seem like it was a great long-term investment. The product is good, but the users acquired never pay any more than the initial investment... and if the lifetime deal is $49, that's a customer lifetime value of $14.
Seems like you would need to be super smart about upselling those users in the future.
There are a few upcoming features that won't be included in the lifetime deal, such as the CRM spin-off platform we're building and the white-label solution we will offer for Publer.
The white-label solution will relatively have a high price and will be subscription based.
We also made it to be the deal of the week. A dedicated email will be sent out this Sunday at 10pm CT. More traffic we probably would have never been able to achieve on our own.
What % does AppSumo take for each purchase?
A whooping 70%, but I think it's worth it. Considering that probably half of what they take goes into ads and other costs, it's not that bad.
I don't care that much about the numbers. I see that people have started talking about our product on social media and are loving it. That's all that matters to me. More people will continue to come in the future once the AppSumo campaign is over.
In the longterm I see this as a great investment.