Ian MacKinnon, co-founder of Later, discusses how leveraging Google search demand for Instagram scheduling generated a massive waitlist prior to launching.
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More from Ian MacKinnon
Insight
Raising only one round prevents late-stage investors from blocking an acquisition
“It was really good to have only raised one round because if we had raised at a higher valuation later on, there might be investors who say, Hey, we can't take that. You haven't returned enough.”
Ian MacKinnonNov 25, 2024▶ 46:39He hit $40M ARR, exited for over $100M—& raised only $1.5M. Here's how | Ian MacKinnon, Co-Founde... · PMF Show
Insight
Word-of-mouth growth models do not work for workflow software
“Word of mouth just Doesn't work. Like, people just don't sit around talking about what apps they use, what cool tools. Like, and maybe they do, but it's not at a rate that you can really model and derive some success from. You need to have better channels than…”
Ian MacKinnonNov 25, 2024▶ 12:17He hit $40M ARR, exited for over $100M—& raised only $1.5M. Here's how | Ian MacKinnon, Co-Founde... · PMF Show
AssertionNot publicly verifiable
MacKinnon: Meta revoked Later's API access for 3 days in June 2018
“Like, I remember very clearly in June of 2018, we lost our API access, because this was right after that whole Cambridge Analytica fallout, where all, they got really particular about Users of their API being properly credentialed and verified, which is unders…”
Ian MacKinnonNov 25, 2024▶ 36:39He hit $40M ARR, exited for over $100M—& raised only $1.5M. Here's how | Ian MacKinnon, Co-Founde... · PMF Show
Insight
MacKinnon: Make a few users fanatics instead of many mildly happy
“The best piece of advice I always give to young entrepreneurs is don't try and make a lot of people happy a little bit. Try and make a small number of people utter fanatics about your product. It's a lot easier to increase the number of people who like your pr…”
Ian MacKinnonNov 25, 2024▶ 7:42He hit $40M ARR, exited for over $100M—& raised only $1.5M. Here's how | Ian MacKinnon, Co-Founde... · PMF Show
Insight
Launching an iOS app Canada-only is the perfect App Store beta test
“You can go through all of Apple's various, you know, beta schemes, or you just launch Canada only, and no one's going to take notice of it anyway unless you tell them. So we have this great beta testable country here.”
Ian MacKinnonNov 25, 2024▶ 10:20He hit $40M ARR, exited for over $100M—& raised only $1.5M. Here's how | Ian MacKinnon, Co-Founde... · PMF Show
Insight
MacKinnon: Real Customer Feedback Only Begins Once You Charge Money
“You get the real feedback after you ask for five bucks, like whatever you're making, whatever you're building, once you ask for money, then people start talking about it seriously.”
Ian MacKinnonNov 25, 2024▶ 20:05He hit $40M ARR, exited for over $100M—& raised only $1.5M. Here's how | Ian MacKinnon, Co-Founde... · PMF Show
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