As I dig through the net to find wisdom I found this very comprehensive 2015 piece by Joseph Walla the founder of Hellosign (2012) and HelloFax (2010) earlier. He writes about the numerous lessons learned while taking his two ventures from 0 to 1mn ARR.
There are 43 lessons he lists and explains in a succinct style.
Sample these:
1. Charge for your product as soon as possible. Really.
4. ‘You have a distribution problem, not a product problem.’
7. There isn’t a strong correlation between beautiful design and success (in the early days)
15. The Dropbox referral page is amazing for Dropbox, but does it work for you?
19. Month on Month (MoM) growth is key
23. Annual plans are amazing. Implement them ASAP.
There are useful references to posts by Mark Suster, David Skok (on SAAS Metrics – See my post #162 on this) and Paul Graham.
Joseph writes as he wraps up the article – “For some reason, the mental default for founders is that their product should be free – and charging needs to be justified. The inverse should be true – the mental default should be that your product should be paid and being free should be justified.”
Great reflective reading.
Where I learnt this #308
43 lessons growing from $0 to $1+ million in revenue, twice
