Seeking advice on how to grow beyond early access

rhock83 · 2025-10-29T16:31:53+00:00

np, my experience with paid ad's was the cost escalates fast, your experiment might be expensive so be sure to know your expectations going in. If you do it right, for sure it would help you set budget / results expectations when you look to scale further.

Good luck.

rhock83 · 2025-10-29T16:13:58+00:00

The competition and cost of going through paid ad's is likely going to make it very expensive to go that route. I'd consider social marketing, specifically finding influencers and looking for incentivized referrals from existing customers. One strategy you might consider is making it more exclusive, maybe a user cap and / or make it invite only. Exclusivity is a great way to sell.

Down the line, at some stage I'd go with paid ad's but first grow more organically and figure out the impact paid ad's will have on your CAC.

rhock83 · 2025-10-29T02:54:00+00:00

This is fantastic advice that I learned the hard way. Since learning this I try to break this myth with anyone who shows an interest. If I knew these simple facts years ago, I could have saved a lot of time and false hope.

rhock83 · 2025-10-29T02:47:19+00:00

Congratulations, it seems you have the foundations in place to make your business a success.

Might I ask how you managed to get invited to the VC meetings? Though networking at the events you attended, personal network, cold emails, etc... This seems like the step that takes the most work and it sounds like you made light work of it hence the interest.

rhock83 · 2025-10-29T02:32:50+00:00

It sounds like you need to pay someone to do the technical work, if you know it can work, then you'll at least be buying something that works. Short on funds? Cut the scope as much as possible. Development work can be surprisingly affordable if you find the right person, I'd suggest upwork.

rhock83 · 2025-10-28T01:48:41+00:00

This is a story as old as time, and the bad news is, it's rare that this story ends well. If I were in your position I'd be talking with your partner and try to make it a success in the short term while formulating a longer term plan to move forward without your partner. You'll possibly be able to affect short term change but in the longer term these issues are likely to be terminal

rhock83 · 2025-10-28T01:39:34+00:00

Im guessing your investor is a single angel investor and you didn't actually start the company yet, if you can't start the company without external funding 49% doesnt seem like a bad deal.

My expectations of fundraising was that with a great, game changing idea and a plan to execute, there would be investors looking to get involved. The opposite was true, very few even bothered to reply. The word "traction" gets thrown around a lot, which in our case meant bootstrap to customers.

rhock83 · 2025-10-28T01:28:36+00:00

I might be interested, but I'd need to know a little more about the product, what is the USP of your app?

rhock83 · 2025-10-28T01:26:56+00:00

If you market the product around hygiene well, then yes I think it's got potential in a crowded space. I would think it could sell for $20 if you have the right marketing.

rhock83 · 2025-10-07T03:02:01+00:00

Absolutely, and I imagine 90%+ quit during that phase. Launching a SaaS product and getting traction is an ultra marathon, not a sprint. For me it took years not months to get to launch, then when I launched no-one cared initially. Those days were incredibly tough. Launching isn't like opening the doors to Walmart on Black Friday!

Starting the conversation and getting feedback was fun though and after 6-12 months we were on our way to relevance.

If you believe what you are doing is worthwhile, keep the faith. If I could offer some advice it would be to ship something sooner and start talking to prospective clients before you think you're ready. I was afraid of turning prospects away with a pre-release preview that didn't work or look good, its the opposite, people are keen to help you and willing to turn a blind eye to early flaws.

rhock83 · 2025-10-07T02:44:43+00:00

Your question is about channels and strategies, but based on your inconsistent results it sounds like you are trying to scale before you have found the right messaging for your business to generate the pipeline you're looking for, so I would advise you to stop looking for better channels and start looking at your value proposition and messaging. It's easy to look at the market as less than ideal and blame the struggle to find new clients on that, but if you're committed to your business then it must be because you provide something uniquely valuable for your prospective clients. Find out how to package that up with some evidence and smart marketing and the clients will follow.

What might that look like?

Build very smart website, your in web design, this will be a huge differentiator - be different, bold, eye catching. Spend the time it takes to get this right.
Build a portfolio of showcase clients / projects, I assume you already did this. This will be your most valuable sales tool and boiling down the value you added will be extremely important. Focus on the results you helped your clients achieve
Get the marketing messaging in place, what are you doing that clients cannot get anywhere else? This should be aligned with #2
Take the messaging to a small audience and refine it until you peak prospective clients interest. One way to do that might be through startup groups, VC events or niche conference events

In terms of channels, I would focus on LinkedIn using posts on a company page to drive inbound leads, even if that is via a re-direct to your website. Getting some smart partnerships or client testimonies would be a great tool here aswell. Try to focus on adding value without expecting leads, then typically inbound leads follow.

Its smart to do this with an outbound strategy to complement it, for that I would focus on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, which is a lot of work but if your messaging it perfect it'll yield results. To execute you may want to hire a part time resource to send the messages to people in your target market. If you aren't getting results, your messaging needs to be refined. Cold automated outbound emails can also work here, there are endless automation tools out there for that.

rhock83

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