The Exchanges

Q That's fantastic. So you're, you have become an affiliate, big, bold across the top of your website. Has that been your main growth channel?

A No, surprisingly, that hasn't been very successful. I do have a couple people getting some traction. Um, and it's, it's not something that I market. So this is something that One of my biggest weaknesses is marketing and sales. I'm just, uh, I like, you know, I'm a creative type. I like working behind the scenes. I like just not, not a lot of people interaction. And I, and I struggle with encouraging people to, you know, help their or solve their problems with things that I do. So, um, that's, that's been a struggle of mine to help, to help grow. And I thought affiliate affiliate marketing, um, would be a way to go. I just don't, I don't push it to any channels and I don't have a big social media presence. So it's kind of just the normal traffic on the website. I think we have like 50 people signed up to that at the moment.

AI assessment note: “No, surprisingly, that hasn't been very successful.”

Q Well, let's keep going on this path. Okay. So like, let's say someone listening today also finds a keyword that they know if they win it, there's a big prize, you know, it's the case for storyboard creator. So what's the next step? How do you create content to rank for it?

A So I, it's funny as I interviewed a couple SEO people, um, I took some meetings just to kind of pick their brain and learn from them. Uh, I don't know if they knew I was doing that, but I kind of just wanted to learn some, some tricks of the trade and essentially getting the keywords that I think, I think obviously Google's evolving over time and, and ranking is constantly changing. And I don't know if anybody knows their true algorithm, but what I learned, uh, was getting the keyword in as much as possible backlinks, having supporting content throughout, um, your website that kind of redirects to one place posting on other platforms. And obviously linking to your website's a big deal, but, um, a lot of, a lot of small, tedious things like inside of your images, um, There's these alt tags. You want to make sure that you're using keywords in those alt tags. You essentially want no space to go unwasted for keywords. Your, your header is very important. Having the keyword in it, um, using it throughout your front page, very important, embedding it in images. So that's kind of what I tried to do. And like, so I would create videos on Vimeo and YouTube and link those and use those same keywords, obviously, and link it to my homepage.

AI assessment note: “getting the keyword in as much as possible backlinks, having supporting content”

Q what they sold or raised for or at, And then use those as comparables in your decks to argue and debate and get a higher valuation and less dilution, which is the name of the game, less dilution. Check it out today at founderpath.com forward slash products. That's plural forward slash valuations. Again, both plural founderpath.com forward slash products forward slash valuations. Who was that guy? How'd you find him?

A Um, a friend. So I grew, or I was, uh, living in the Bay area. I knew a UI designer was a friend I went to church with, and he worked at a company, uh, and he, he knew many developers. He's a UI, you know, designer at this, uh, this company. Um, and he knew his friend wanted to do some freelance work. A lot, a lot, there's a lot of board developers in the Bay area at the time because they're just doing boring corporate stuff. And when they hear somebody starting an MVP, they kind of want to just do it because there's less, You know, red tape. They can kind of be creative and do their thing.

AI assessment note: “a friend I went to church with, and he worked at a company”

Q Um, have you ever flipped the script when you got an outreach like that and said, Hey, you want to buy the whole company for a hundred grand?

A I've, that thoughts crossed my mind a lot. Um, I, I, and I, when I think about that, then I, I wonder if I regret not pushing hard enough before doing that. Um, I would hate, I would hate to wait too long to where the, where the app is, uh, outgrown by competition. It's no longer valuable. I would hate to see it wasted. Um, when the positives, I think when I think that thought is like, man, I'd love to see somebody make it the best it could be. Cause I think, I, I just have so many limitations, my time being one and just kind of my note, my knowledge and growing a SAS. Like, I think, I think I, I've done everything that I could from having no experience and trying to do it on the side. Um, and obviously all being bootstrapped, like I don't have any investors or I haven't had any coaching or help getting it set up. So it's kind of just listening to podcasts and reading books, like trying to figure it out on my own.

AI assessment note: “I've, that thoughts crossed my mind a lot.”

Q Why is that? Why is that the number? I mean, how long would it take you to make a hundred grand on this and free cashflow?

A That's yeah. That's the other thing I've thought I've kind of, so what I've been doing is obviously reinvesting subscription revenue to my developers. Cause I want to improve the product. So I've, I have had that thought, like, what if I maybe just Sat for a few years and collected a check and then sold it. So at least I built some, cause I'm honestly about at a, I'm at a break even point essentially. So if I, if I don't hire develop or don't pay developers, I could just collect some profit for a while. I've thought about that. Um, I guess a hundred K is my number. Cause I think that's kind of what's fair for the state of the business. And it would kind of be enough money to make me satisfied with how much time I've put into it. Um, it would be, I think it just because it would be hard to accept less than that. Otherwise, I feel like I should, I should keep working at it, you know?

AI assessment note: “I guess a hundred K is my number. Cause I think that's kind of what's fair”

Q All right. So, so let's reverse engineer. Let's talk about where the plot is today, then reverse engineer the full story. So what are customers paying on average per month today to use the tool?

A Um, we just increased prices this last month. It's been something I've been working on. So So obviously, um, this is a side project of mine and I think there's a lot to talk about here. I think I have a lot to learn from you, which is I was excited to get your email because, um, like the software is, is a side hustle of mine. This is not, it's not something I've been able to focus on full time. And, um, so it, it honestly hasn't gotten the love it deserves, but so for a long time, it's been 10 dollars only, um, 10 dollars a month for unlimited access. Like we didn't have tiered pricing like I, like I should have a long time ago. I realized, you know, I'm leaving money on the table by not doing that. Um, finally was able to get that launched just this last month. So now we have three tiers, 10 dollars for a solo plan, 15 for a team plan with five collaborators per project, and then a, a business plan for unlimited collaborators at 20 a month.

AI assessment note: “three tiers, 10 dollars for a solo plan, 15 for a team plan”