A few weeks ago, I launched Shareables, a tool designed to help you easily transform Airtable data into customizable iframes for your website.
While I didn’t have a waitlist of eager users beforehand, I decided to take the plunge and introduce Shareables to the world—starting with a launch on Product Hunt and hoped it would take off...(not really)
The launch
The launch on Product Hunt went about as well as I could have expected. However, I quickly realized that it wasn’t the most effective channel for reaching my target users—many of whom aren't founders.
But in reality launching on Product Hunt was mostly ceremonial for me, it was the first time since I left my previous role that I've put something out into the world and that's as good as a reason as any to celebrate.
So after the excitement of Product Hunt had worn off, the real work began.
Finding my first customers
Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you…
Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they’ll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.
If they don’t love it, you need a new product. Start over.
– Seth Godin, First, ten
The article above by Seth, is an absolute must read, after the launch, I realized everyone who had signed up for Shareables so far wasn't in love with what the product currently does and that's actually fine, but that just means I need to go see if there are people out there who do love what it does.
Entrepreneurs have to actively recruit their first few customers. This is hard, important work, because the first few customers will help you refine your product, begin understanding how to position it in the market, and provide important social proof for your company
– Patrick McKenzie, Your first 10 customers
To find those people I've been leaning into manual methods to funnel people into the product so that I can gather feedback on the experience, what's working and what isn't.
- Posted in Facebook groups, forums and subreddits. >> Everyone who liked or commented on my posts I would also follow up with.
- This worked surprisingly well, and most of my users have come from these channels
- Messaged 100 people on Twitter
- This didn't work very well, most people don't see when they get a message from someone they're not already following
- Messaged 150 people on Linkedin
- Earlier this year I got quite good at sourcing leads which made this quite a great channel for personalized outreach
The internet really is a small place...
Whilst I was reaching out to people on Linkedin I happened to message someone who had already seen my launch on Product Hunt and had created a video for Youtube about Shareables 🤯
I'm so blown away by how well they've encapsulated what the tool does. that I'm adding it to the brag board
Outreach results
From my outreach efforts above, Shareables now has:
- 50 users
- 52 templates created
- 25 templates published
- 2 users trialling the paid version (more on this in an upcoming post)
It's slow progress that's for sure but there are quite a few areas that I'm working on to try to increase the rate of growth and hopefully find those first 10 customers.
– Ryan