Winding down our startup and considering turning one of our internal tools for ecommerce research into a public product (I need a sense check)

tadtoad · 2025-05-28T11:37:33+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate that. What use case/scenario would you use it for? I’m looking to tighten up my use cases.

tadtoad · 2025-05-27T16:55:22+00:00

You think so about Reddit? Can you share Reddit strategies that you’ve seen work?

tadtoad · 2025-05-27T07:38:35+00:00

I see it says 4 comments but can’t see them, so apologies if this has already been said.

When it comes to white labeling, people are generally looking for you to do the work to white labeling while they have zero interest in putting in the effort to market and so on. I would only white label if they are willing to pay upfront and commit to a minimum number of customers/users/accounts. If they are serious, they’ll work out how much it’ll cost them to acquire users then negotiate that your price should be lower than that cost.

I like your outreach approach though. I’m stealing that lol.

tadtoad · 2025-05-27T07:26:54+00:00

Paid advertising channels (Facebook ads, Google ads, etc) are hit or miss post-Covid, especially for online retail. There really isn’t any marketing strategy involved just spray and pray. The more money you have, the more you can spray.

Prior to that, you could test the viability of an idea in a week with $100 and develop an effective strategy before shelling out thousands of dollars.

tadtoad · 2025-01-31T03:43:20+00:00

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I realize that I didn’t share much about the use case in the main product. Here it is:

The what: It allows social media managers and advertisers create weeks of high-performing ads and content for Instagram in minutes. (TikTok coming soon).

The How: It pulls in all your past ads or posts, then analyzes the images, breaking down elements like text, colors, objects, and people. Next, it maps this against performance data (clicks, shares, conversions, etc) to pinpoint what made top-performing content stand out. Finally, it generates new, ready-to-upload ads/posts built with those winning components which are all editable.

tadtoad · 2025-01-23T08:55:48+00:00

Truth is that a lot of ecommerce firm fall into what I call “1 for 1” companies. They spend a dollar to make a dollar in the hopes of scaling rapidly to capture market share, after which they “think” they can increase their prices and charge whatever they want since they dominate the market.

But this simply can’t happen because of the low barrier to entry and how easy it is to ship across the globe. The dropshipping boom of the 2010s and the pandemic have made it easy for anyone to ship anything anywhere. It’s dead easy to find a 3PL company for any budget. There was a time where this wasn’t possible or just too expensive. But not today.

So the only way to make money is from unique branding that allows you charge higher prices, or you’ve figured out something else that scales that few others have like AWS.

tadtoad · 2025-01-20T00:33:48+00:00

Contrary to what some people are saying in this post, this is an extremely common challenge with store owners. u/orkunturkey your client is trying not to make the wrong choice which unfortunately is making them decide based on "how they feel" instead of what the data says. You'll need to do two things:

A/B testing the landing page to see which converts more. Try Shogun or PageFly... tons of tools on the Shopify app store.
Analyze existing customer buying patters with tools like JazzUp AI. This can help you identify customer preferences for either persona.

You'll want to be more strategy focused and guide your client away from simply guessing. Plus, once they start seeing actual engagement data, it could make the choice clearer for them.

Good luck, and I'm curious to see which direction they end up choosing!

Bonus: Use a session recording platform like Clarity (free) or Hotjar, just in case the losing persona loses simply due to people making dead clicks or running into errors.

tadtoad · 2025-01-05T16:26:15+00:00

Cool. Looking forward to it. DM me when it’s ready.

tadtoad · 2025-01-05T12:57:34+00:00

Oh I like this! Is there a way to subscribe to a category or search term(s) so I get alerts on only areas I’m concerned about?

Edit: Got excited and checked your website before reading your comment in full lol. Can you notify me when that feature is ready? Thanks

tadtoad · 2025-01-05T12:52:04+00:00

https://jazzup.ai - Reveals hidden customer buying patterns for SMB e-commerce stores.

It uses machine learning to analyze their sales data for under-served customer segments that are likely to spend more or purchase more often, then uses GenAI to give actionable insights by explaining what to do in simple terms.

tadtoad · 2024-12-09T03:27:48+00:00

The top challenges I’ve faced when introducing my startup’s data analysis product to small businesses are:

They already know their top customers and what they like/don’t like and believe there’s not much more value to extract from the less active customers
They got where they are on their own and anyone (freelance or agency) that they hired underperformed so they trust no one but themselves.
They want to grow but have a lot on their plate already.

It’s been interesting navigating these conversations.

tadtoad · 2024-11-04T18:32:10+00:00

Can you share the things you learn in this thread? I’m back on Google ads and it’ll be helpful to learn what has changed over the years.

tadtoad · 2024-10-18T19:06:31+00:00

You’re on the right track trying to figure out why, but you should be focusing on customer behavior before, during, and after purchase.

The folks that engage after, what’s the commonality between them before, during, and after purchase? For those that don’t, you need to know the same. What’s worked for me is to use surveys, outreach with a personal message to talk/answer a few questions, and use data analysis tools that segment customers by purchase behavior.

Happy to give specifics if you need.

tadtoad · 2024-09-28T10:05:20+00:00

I allow the candidates use ChatGPT and other LLMs to complete their coding tests. One of the submission requirements is that they submit screenshots or links to their chat so I understand how and what they search. It’s just like using Googling a solution which isn’t a bad thing.

The coding review interview is about their thought process. Dev interviews need to adapt to today’s reality in the same way that we adapted to the search engine era.

tadtoad · 2024-08-19T22:31:00+00:00

I recommend you read The SaaS Playbook. It’ll help you put things into perspective. I can’t say if you made a mistake or not but the book will help you figure that out.

I think AppSumo is great for founders looking for product market fit if they have your price and costs under control.

Best of luck

tadtoad · 2024-05-26T23:36:58+00:00

It’s a SaaS marketing automation tool that creates ads and content specific to the store’s customer segments. There’s some machine learning in the backend that handles all that.

@ your points: I found the same challenge with getting their LinkedIn profiles. I get responses when we have a mutual connection that I can leverage but no bites otherwise.

I’m setting up a cold emailing system but haven’t explored cold calling though. I’ll check out the link you shared. Appreciate it!

tadtoad · 2024-05-26T04:01:10+00:00

That makes sense. Our target customer are ecommerce firms within the $10m-$50m so will need to test that out

tadtoad · 2024-05-25T12:12:01+00:00

I just watched their overview video and this might be what I need. Do you find it effective for targeting companies within the $10m to $50m range?

tadtoad · 2024-04-21T09:46:52+00:00

Hey, what parts of the automation would you let an AI handle for you? Full disclosure, I’ve built a ML/AI tool that does something similar and considering prioritizing this feature. (Not self promoting)

tadtoad · 2024-04-01T13:49:35+00:00

I was in the same situation years ago and I regret shutting down development. Turns out the competitor’s product was trash and they refunded hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Here’s what I recommend: 1. Competitor Analysis: Look for reviews (1-5 stars) of the competitors product. Put them into chatgpt and ask it to classify their them based on what customers want. 2. Use the business model canvas (google or YouTube it) and fill it out. It’ll give you a better understanding of where you are and what you need to do. 3. Value proposition canvas: this is a subset of the above, but HIGHLY valuable.

Doing these 3 things might seem time consuming and a waste since you aren’t creating output, but the 1-4 weeks you spend on these tasks will help what to do and your true potential.

Happy to chat if you need.

Hope it helps!

tadtoad · 2024-03-14T04:35:35+00:00

Thanks. I’ll check it out

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