Process I would use to scale a new app from $0 to $10K MRR ๐
With no connection.
Summary:
1/ Events
2/ Finding problems
3/ MVP
4/ Early users
5/ Improvement
6/ Referal
7/ Linkedin
8/ Analytics
9/ Reviews
10/ Cold Emails
Let's go.
1/ Events
I need to meet as many merchants as possible.
I would attend every ecommerce event near me.
I find them by following everyone on social media and asking them if they know some events
Meeting merchants in real life is a cheat code
2/ Finding problems
My first objective is to find the right problem to solve. It's like 80% of the job.
To find problems you talk to all the merchants and ask as many questions as possible.
Go deep with follow up questions.
Soon they'll talk about a potential problem and go deep into that one.
Then talk about that problem with other merchants.
If you find at least 3 merchants with that problem you've got something.
They need to be painful problems and not just nice to have.
Keep the contact of ALL the merchants you meet, that's your network.
3/ MVP
It's time to build your MVP, as you talk to merchants you'll figure out the top 3 features that your app should have.
Build them so merchants find value since day one
I'd focus on an app I can build in 2-3 weeks maximum
During this step I will keep communicating with merchants that's important so you don't go in the wrong direction.
Then I release on app store and wait for approval
My app will be unlisted first
4/ Early users
I now need to onboard users who were interested and get feedback from them
If possible I take them on call so I can see how they use it.
You may need to change some stuffs on your app
5/ Improvements
That's only when you start improving your app based on feedback and not before
Your users are the ones coming with feature ideas!
6/ Referal
They should help you find other merchants. They usually have a network as well
Aim for 10-15 early users that's perfect
7/ Linkedin
Now as I build I would contact merchants on Linkedin to sell my solution
There are 2 ways:
Building meaningful relationships or only selling
You can use both and you have tools like Sales Navigator to help you
I send 10-20 connection requests per month to people working at Shopify stores
Then I post about what I'm working on focusing on the business side and not the technical one.
I want to attract merchants
1 post per day, I need to be seen
8/ Analytics
I need to install an analytics tool like Mixpanel asap
Tracking things like activation rate, feature usage, onboarding duration, churn, etc
At that point I can launch on the app store
โข Need to optimize listing page
โข Ask for reviews to all the users until they leave one
It's a cheat code honestly
9/ Reviews
Strategy is simple
Provide excellent customer support, proactively reach out to every install, offer good support and ask for reviews immediately
They'll help you grow!
10/ Cold email
I need to have a way for people to pay a lot, so a user can scale
It would justify sales call.
I use storelead and cold email with tools like Lemlist, I link it to Linkedin as well.
I redirect people to call and sale them the solution
You can do it in the beginning and even after if your ARPU is high
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Honestly after that it's just doing it at scale.
โข Improve metrics to fix your weaknessed
โข Optimize support processes
โข Ask for reviews
โข More Linkedin
โข More app store optimization
โข More cold email
And keep going!
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