I Launched My First SaaS And Had Paying Customers Within A Few Days
Hello! My name is Peter and I’ve just launched Templated.
Templated is a solution to automate the creation of images and PDFs using an API or no code integrations. It’s a Canva-like editor + API for automation.
We recently went slightly viral on Reddit and got thousands in traffic to the site but still did not convert much.
Then we launched on ProductHunt and got our first paid customer.
We’re currently just short of $100 MRR and excited about the future!
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I’ve been a developer for almost 14 years now and have worked on companies of all sizes throughout my career. From large corporations to small startups which gave some different perspectives on how to build a company.
Last September I received the news that the company I work for was only going to be able to have me as a part-time engineer and they offered me only that. It was tough news to receive but I took it as an opportunity to build something for myself.
With the extra time I had and still having an income, it would be possible for me to work on something for myself.
As I already had some experience with implementing in-browser editors and image rendering engines I thought why not implement something to put in use this expertise?
There were a few companies on the market with similar solutions and I thought I could do the same.
Then at the beginning of October, I started working on the idea.
I knew I had the know-how.
Now I just had to put the work in.
I believe we have an edge on the ease of use as we’re focusing on the experience our users will have when designing their templates.
And users want that.
Write your first line of code and ship it. We overestimate what our MVP should be so don’t wait too long to show to others what you have built.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
At first, I tried to start the project with a SaaS boilerplate. I paid $399 on that just to find out it wasn’t going to work for me.
The boilerplate was made with Next.js and I had no practical experience with that.
It didn’t take long for me to realize it was going to take longer for me to understand that code in a framework I had no experience in than to write the code for myself on a framework I know how things work.
So I went back to what I know: Spring + Kotlin + React + AWS.
It’s not the hot framework of the moment but it works. I know how to work with that.
After the framework was decided, I challenged myself to build a simple template editor.
I wanted to build something people were familiar with and easy to use.
So I tried to build an editor very similar to Canva. And it worked.
Then I started focusing on the API part and after some initial issues, I was able to have a first prototype. And it was great seeing the idea come to life.
After that, I set up the initial deploy system to AWS and got approved for $1,000 in credits to use there.
For the business model, I tried to replicate what the other competitors were doing and offer different plans for monthly API credits. So a user has a maximum number of images and PDFs to generate each month and then that’s reset at the end of the month.
We also offer a trial plan with 50 free API credits for users to try before signing up for a paid plan with more credits.
While developing and implementing things we tend to focus on things that we’re used to and not see the corner cases and different workflows that a real user can take. So it’s important to understand how real customers are using the product and where they find the most value.
Describe the process of launching the business.
It took around 3 months to have the MVP ready and that was the easy part.
Now comes the era of finding users and it’s a first for me.
It’s been hard but I’ve learned a lot along the way.
The launch was not super smooth as we had some issues with initial users, but I managed to figure those out as soon as they appeared.
The first name was RenderChef but at a second thought, I found that Templated makes more sense as we’re using a template to create similar renders. So I bought a new domain and deployed to it.
At first, I tried some outreach to friends and on X for people to try the solution and it was great to receive initial feedback.
My brother also helped me a lot in designing a few templates directly on our editor tool to have on our gallery.
Then we launched on ProductHunt and from there we got our first paid users.
It was great seeing my first ever transaction Stripe notification, haha.
We got featured and ended the day in the top 10 position and as the top 1 launch from a Solo Founder!
Another cool thing that happened from the launch was that Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt, upvoted and commented on the launch. I’ve been following him since the beginning of PH and it was great to have some feedback from him.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
What I’ve learned since we launched is that the most important thing is to hear and learn from the early users.
While developing and implementing things we tend to focus on things that we’re used to and not see the corner cases and different workflows that a real user can take. So it’s important to understand how real customers are using the product and where they find the most value.
Currently, we have around 150 registered users and 2 paid customers.
The paid ones are on the $29/mo plan and the others are on the free trial plan with the 50 free credits. So the hope is that some of those will convert after their free credits ends.
We’re focusing on measuring and improving the experience and the initial setup so users integrate with our API easily.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
We’re just starting! And we’re slightly profitable.
So far the costs to maintain the infrastructure are quite low and with the credits from AWS, we’re able to not expend much on that for now.
As we’re an API product I do expect that those costs will increase in the future but we should be alright while adding new customers. Right now I’m not taking any money away from the company and reinvesting every cent that comes to us.
The goal is to spend 2024 growing the company and eventually, I will be able to quit this part-time job for good.
The focus now is on SEO to attract new customers who could be interested in automating images and PDFs. I’ve been adding a lot of content to the blog with articles focusing on developers finding ways to automate PDF generation and offering Templated as a solution.
I’m also giving it a try outreach and for that I’m using Apollo. Let’s see how it goes in the following months.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
As an engineer, it’s hard to do marketing and I’ve been learning it the hard way.
Let me write code for 10 hours a day, but writing a blog post for 1 hour is a difficult task for me.
The implementation part is important but without marketing it people will never find out your solution and your idea will not live long enough to solve real world issues.
So I’ve learned that I need to focus on the hard things. I need to learn those new skills and not fool myself that this part is not important.
I’m slowly getting better at marketing and things are starting to get a bit easier.
So now that the implementation is mostly done and it’s working, most of my time is now spent on learning what I need to do to attract customers.
Reading and watching at StarterStory, watching videos on the basics of SEO, prompting at ChatGPT, and reading blog articles are a few things I’ve been doing to get better at promoting Templated.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
I’ve been focusing a lot on SEO recently so Google Search Console and Google Analytics have been my browser home these days.
Also, I’ve added a chat bubble to the site and Crisp is great to have some quick interactions with the users.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I’m not much of a book person but I’ve been studying and hearing a lot about SEO and a great source for that that I found is Julian Goldie Youtube channel.
Also, X/Twitter and the #buildinpublic community a great sources to meet like-minded people who are on the same journey.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Write your first line of code and ship it. We overestimate what our MVP should be so don’t wait too long to show to others what you have built.
I struggled with that for so long and these days I regret now having shipped earlier.
People can find value in your initial product and it’s easier for you to expand/pivot/improve after your initial launch.
Don’t. Be. Afraid.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Not yet.
We’re still learning what customers need so at this point we dont have the capital for expanding and for now I can manage things for myself.
But the future is bright and hopefully, we will need more people to help soon!
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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