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Tell HN: I just reached 10 paying customers after 2 weeks of the public launch

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Tell HN: I just reached 10 paying customers after 2 weeks of the public launch

#1
I am Koushik, founder of Supademo, and this is the story of how I got my first 10 paid customers.

Firstly, Wow, the feeling is memorable. I know it's a small win, but it feels like a big one in my heart

A little backstory.

I launched the beta version of Supademo(a tool to create interactive product demos in minutes) on Oct 8th.

Link to the product: https://supademo.com

After running the beta for 5 Weeks+, I officially made the public launch 2 weeks back.

Some stats so far: •340 signups •250+ user demos •10 Paid customers

So how did I get here?

I tried different strategies to get the initial word out and find the beta users. (mainly in the first 2 weeks)

These worked great for me: •Hackernews(70 upvotes) •Reddit: r/SideProject (70 upvotes) •Word of mouth •Cold DMs and emails to experienced Indiehackers for feedback. (%15 effect )

Fortunately, so many users found the product helpful. So, I started getting tons of feedback. I took calls with some of them, and some sent me feedback through emails and DMs.

I am so grateful to everyone who took the time to try the product and give feedback and suggestions.

So I quickly aggregated the feedback in one place and rolled out the most requested features one by one. I shared product updates through email every week with the users.

The users who saw me implementing their feedback trusted me and became my first paid customers.

Lesson learned: As Indiehackers, we know how precious is our time and resources. So when you are starting, instead of finding ways to get more users, find the right ones, listen to them, and optimize the product accordingly.

I know this is just the start, but I am excited about the upcoming journey. Much more things to learn!

If you want to connect and chat more, ping me on Twitter(@koushikmarka). My DMs are always open.

Re: Tell HN: I just reached 10 paying customers after 2 weeks of the public launch

#4
May be I am missing something but wouldn't you want to use your own app to showcase in the demo than a sample demo ? You are selling a product to create interactive product demos and in the sample demo, it shows some random app instead of your own app's demo. Don't mean to be dismissive but I think you are missing the trick by not doing this. I would have loved to see how to create interactive demo without needing to signup/login.

Re: Tell HN: I just reached 10 paying customers after 2 weeks of the public launch

#7

Congrats on shipping and on your first customers! I remember getting almost teary eyed when I first put paid features in my app and people bought some right away.

Thank you, buddy. I understand; the feeling is super emotional.

Re: Tell HN: I just reached 10 paying customers after 2 weeks of the public launch

#8
post #4

May be I am missing something but wouldn't you want to use your own app to showcase in the demo than a sample demo ? You are selling a product to create interactive product demos and in the sample demo, it shows some random app instead of your own app's demo. Don't mean to be dismissive but I think you are missing the trick by not doing this. I would have loved to see how to create interactive demo without needing to…

That's really a great idea. We are actually going to add two more sample demos this week, along with the existing one on the website. One of them is the "How to create your first demo"?

Let's see how it goes.

Re: Tell HN: I just reached 10 paying customers after 2 weeks of the public launch

#10

Congratulations. That's such a good feeling huh? Now you just need to hang on to them, double them every month ... The fact that you get good feedback you can act on is gold.

Thank you. Really a great feeling. The initial feedback from our users was super helpful in fine-tuning the Supademo.
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