Original post by Anthony Bosschem via The Next Web
Relationships are key to succeeding in business. Before our company even had a product, we acquired our first customers just by selling our ideas alone. But what happens after you gain your first few followers? If you don’t act fast, your believers will go away, so we wanted to get to $10,000 monthly recurring revenue as fast as possible.
The $10k is not a goal in itself. It’s just money; a means to an end. The real challenge was to prove our first believers we are worthy of their initial trust. If we can confirm their belief, we can also expand our customer base.
Here are a few lessons we learned going from four believers to $10,000 in MRR.
Hire a designer on day one
If your job isn’t design-based, find someone who can give you that advantage. Great design maximizes the impact of technical innovation. Your product could function well, but if it isn’t easy to use, it won’t retain fans.
Having a designer on board gives us the ability to work out features without writing a single line of code. While developers are programming Feature One, our designer can work on Feature Two with our customers. Only when Feature Two is completely validated by users, developers will start programming. It’s efficient without too much back and forth.
Search for your non-technical cofounder
What appeared to be one of my biggest weaknesses turned out to be a huge strength. Because I’m not technical, we had a huge focus on sales and customer success from day one.
It’s important to find cofounders who can give you different expertise and perspectives in order to make your product as well-rounded as possible.
