LinkedIn: Lukas Hermann
Twitter: @_lhermann
Website: https://stagetimer.io/
I met Lukas through Twitter and I would like to thank him for being my first guest. He has a unique story of bootstrapping and I hope he will focus on a specific niche to grow his company. At the moment, it seems like he has many use cases and it might be great to focus on one to succeed. With this approach, he can find the product’s main positioning.
How did you start that project, and why did you start doing your own?
I started my journey as a software developer in a startup. Before that, I had experience in freelancing, where I realized the limitations of trading time for money. I aspired to create something more scalable. That’s when the idea for a timer tool came to me.
The spark for this tool came while working with a friend who operated a video recording studio. I noticed a recurring issue: the need for a timer to synchronize recordings. I searched online for a web-based timer solution, but I couldn’t find one that suited our needs.
This realization prompted me to take action. I decided to create a simple, one-page timer tool. Once it was up and running, I shared it on Reddit, specifically within the “commercial AV” subreddit, as I believed it could address the needs of that community.
The response was positive. People not only found it useful but also provided valuable feedback. This feedback encouraged me to keep refining and enhancing the tool. I incorporated additional features suggested by the community.
It wasn’t until eight months later that I introduced a paid feature to monetize the tool. Surprisingly, someone made a purchase, despite my relatively small – 200 – online following. This marked a pivotal moment in the project’s journey and its path to success.
And at the time you were also working for the company or was this a side project?
This was purely a side project. The turning point was when my first customer purchased the tool, even though I didn’t have an email list – just a small Twitter following.
Screenshot from our Streamyard Session with Lukas’s Blue Eyes. 🙂
How long did it take for you to leave your job and focus on this project full time?
It took 18 months to go from zero to 5,000€ per month. After that, I was laid off during the pandemic, which provided an opportunity to go full-time with Stage Timer. Thanks to my wife for her support! 🤗🤗
How did you get that 5,000€ MRR, and which channels did you focus on?
As for the channels we focused on, our initial strategy included sharing the project on Twitter, which is a common approach. But we quickly realized that our target customers weren’t primarily on Twitter. So, we shifted our strategy towards communities and forums where professionals and enthusiasts discussed video recording and live video recording. These communities became valuable platforms for engagement.
Furthermore, we leveraged our application itself for promotion. By allowing users to share a link to their timer, we not only simplified the sharing process but also ensured our product’s visibility. This tactic was particularly effective in contexts like churches and small meetups, where the Stage Timer branding became a part of the shared experience.
It’s worth noting that we took inspiration from successful referral strategies like Dropbox’s, where users invite others to gain more features or space. This referral approach also contributed to our early growth and brand exposure.
Additionally, we benefited from the organic word of mouth. Within the community, some video professionals started creating videos about our tool without us even asking. These videos were professionally made and added significant credibility to our project.
Later on, we invested time in creating highly targeted landing pages with the help of Demand Curve’s playbooks. To ensure our landing pages resonated with our audience, we conducted in-depth interviews with our potential customers to understand their specific needs and concerns. This allowed us to craft messaging that truly resonated with our audience, making our landing pages more effective.
On the free version, they have stagetimer.io logo top-right which leads to PLG.
And then I thought, we don’t really know our industry. We don’t know because we have never been part of it. So we didn’t know what words they use and, and what things they think about and worry about every day. So we talked to them.
In summary, our path to 5,000€ MRR involved a combination of product improvement, community engagement, referral strategies, organic word of mouth, customer interviews and well-crafted landing pages tailored to our audience’s needs. All of these factors played a role in our journey to success.
What did you prioritize after you started as a full time, and how did you schedule your day?
I focused on coding and building features based on customer feedback. I also worked on marketing, including Google Ads, and creating landing pages tailored to our audience’s needs.
Later on, my wife joined to help with marketing, further expanding our efforts. At that time, she tested Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube Ads. At the moment, we only continue with Google search ads.
Are you planning to seek VC funding, or do you prefer to continue bootstrapping?
I always plan to just bootstrap, bootstrap, bootstrap. I thought I wanted to learn everything that I need to learn about business and then for my next business, I can consider funding because then I know at least some basics.
But a few weeks ago an investor contacted us. And says he would like to invest and we are talking now.
What struggles have you faced during this journey?
Loneliness is a challenge as a solo founder. If you can find a community and talk regularly with other founders, it’s really good and it helps a lot.
Navigating the regulations in Germany, especially tax-related matters, was also complex. The startup landscape in different countries can pose unique challenges.
What communities are you a part of to combat loneliness?
I’m active on Twitter, where I engage with a community of fellow founders. I also have a local founder friend whom I meet occasionally.
What advice would you give to bootstrappers?
You know, life is really, it’s very similar to a game. You have rules. And if you understand the rules, you can play the game well, and the better you know how to play the game, the more you’re likely to win.
Life is just that the rules are really complex and there are a lot of them, but you can learn them like in business. There are very defined rules. How do you get people to come to your website? How do you sell something to them? How do you build something that they want? It’s almost like there are rules in this game.
And if you learn them, you can play the game better. And whenever I’m overwhelmed, like when it’s too much, or when I kind of run myself into a mental. I try to remember. It’s just, you’re just playing a game. You’re just trying your best. You’re learning the rules and the better you learn the rules, the better you can do it, and sometimes you lose, but then the more often you lose, the more often you win later on.
I mean, in the end, you’re going to die and your life is going to be over like everybody else’s life.
Even if you failed, you at least tried it. I think the worst thing is if you work for 30 years and then you realize, I knew I’ve never tried doing the thing.
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