Our first anniversary - stats, learnings and future plans

Last week, we celebrated Herodesks’ one-year birthday. I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we launched the product and sent out our “Hello, World!” signal.

And boy, did the world respond!

I wanna take this opportunity to look back on what it’s been like to be a solo entrepreneur and start over again. Share some learnings and stats.

First, a few numbers on where we’re at and what it’s taken to get here.

Right now, Herodesk has 87 paying customers, 209 paid seats, and a combined MRR of €3.066. We're on track to reach the 2024 goal (€5k MRR).

There are an additional 400 free accounts, but the vast majority aren’t active. I’ll probably make something that auto-closes free accounts after one year of inactivity.

The Herodesk source code has more than 100.000 lines of code. The repository has 1.476 commits, averaging just above four commits per day, every day, since launch.

I’ve invested around €60.000 to get to where we are now. That covers all expenses except my salary, so hosting, software licenses, marketing spend, freelancers, agencies, accountants, lawyers - everything. That’s obviously a lot more than even the ARR, but I consider it an up-front investment in building the subscription base that’ll eventually pay off.

I wanna share three learnings that I kind of knew going into this, but which have only been re-confirmed over the past twelve months… And finally, what I expect the next twelve months to bring.

You gotta nail that ICP

ICP. Ideal Customer Profile. You may have an idea about who you want to sell your product to, but it’s a never-ending journey to continuously discover and fine-tune your ICP and persona.

If you don’t nail it, you won’t succeed.

There are hundreds of resources available on how to find your ICP. One of the best I’ve found is this (danish) series by Thomas Kjølhede. It’s available for free at https://www.moxii.dk/tag/newsletter/.

There’s no “silver bullet”

It would be so great to land that one partner who brings the first 100 customers, or that perfect ad copy that converts visitors like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

The only thing is: That doesn’t exist.

Bringing in the first 87 paying customers has been a combination of (a lot of) LinkedIn posts, paid advertisement (on many different platforms and channels - test, adjust, test, adjust, over and over), cold calling using a telemarketing agency, partnerships with other companies, taking every opportunity I’ve been offered to appear on podcasts, conferences, webinars - anywhere that allows me to get in front of a bunch of people, wearing my Herodesk hoodie, and saying something.

I can’t tell you exactly what has worked and what hasn’t. It’s difficult to measure. The buying journey for B2B SaaS is long and complex. Often, you’re not even talking to the decision maker but rather the user.

So, I’ve taken a holistic approach. The sum of all our marketing activities is divided by the number of customers that we bring in, combined with some common sense and a gut feeling about what’s working best.

It’s freaking hard work!

Every new customer brings along one or two feature requests. You gotta say “No” to a lot, but also prioritize and find a way that still meets their needs.

Those 87 customers I mentioned above haven’t just appeared out of thin air. To land them, I’ve probably had demo meetings with 150 leads and 2, 3, 5, or 10 follow-ups with many of them before they’re ready to get started and get onboarded. That’s a lot of calls.

Then there’s the ~100k lines of code that make up the app.

And everything else it takes to start a business.

It’s a lot - but it’s what it takes!

Product-market fit

A couple of weeks ago, I got a new customer who signed up via the Shopify app store. A Polish webshop who upgraded to Herodesk Plus, connected his webshop, support e-mail and social media and self-onboarded.

That was a huge win and confirmation that we’re on to something! It gives me confidence that we’re very close to a true product-market-fit.

I’m ready to push even harder.

Next week, I’ll start looking for our first full-time employee: a fully remote Danish-speaking customer success manager who’ll help with the entire customer journey and experience, from demo meetings to onboarding and support.

Our 2025 goal: €20.000 MRR 🚀

This first year has been amazing. I’m back at doing what I love, and what we’ve been doing has proven to work!

If you’re an entrepreneur yourself, I’m sure you know the amazing feeling of having someone willing to spend their hard earned money on the thing you built yourself. It feels absolutely incredible!

The coming year will be even better!

Most of all because my wife and I are expecting our first baby girl this February 😍🩷

I’m beyond excited!