To Take Funding, or Not to Take Funding

Colleen Schnettler  0:00 
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Michele Hansen  0:46 
So Colleen, you launched your SaaS, Simple File Upload, in December. And for the past couple of months now, we have been tracking how it's doing, how many people are signing up, your revenue, all those things. So last time we talked, you were on track for $325 in MRR and I think the previous time we had talked about before that which is maybe like two weeks before that. You're at $120 MRR. And so I'm curious, like, where are we now?

Colleen Schnettler  1:29 
So since we last spoke, I had one additional signups.

Michele Hansen
Nice.

Colleen Schnettler
So that puts me at $360 MRR. And I really I mean, I feel like I've won the lottery, Michele, like it feels amazing.

Michele Hansen  1:39 
Isn't SaaS great?

Colleen Schnettler  1:41 
So I mean, it was so hard to get to this point. But right now it just feels good. I think it's important to note that I couldn't charge for it until February 4, which was three weeks ago. So in three weeks, I've gone from zero MRR to $360. That's why I feel like I've won the lottery, like it's just.

Michele Hansen  1:59 
That's amazing. Have you annualize that yet? like have you let yourself like multiply that by 12. And just like think about that for a second?

Colleen Schnettler  2:05 
Too much. It's too much dreaming. I'm not quite ready to dream that big yet. But it feels really great. I mean, I am kind of floored --

Michele Hansen
$4,000 a year, by the way --

Colleen Schnettler
I could fly to Europe someday with that money when it's safe to fly. Yeah, so it feels really amazing to see this growth. And I have mentioned that I've been really busy the past couple weeks with with real paid work. And so I haven't put a lot of time or energy into this and people are still signing up.

Michele Hansen  2:43 
So this is real paid work the differences.

Colleen Schnettler  2:47 
Yeah, I shouldn't call --

Michele Hansen  2:50 
You don't have to be sort of like a like button chair, in order to make that revenue and make those sales, right like cuz whenever you get a consulting client, this is where these are so different. You have to work for every single customer in order to make that happen. Like you have to be out meeting people and making contacts and landing each client. But when you have customers, and they can just sign up whenever they need it. And they don't have to talk to you or do anything with you at all, before paying you, it's a huge shift.

Colleen Schnettler  3:30 
Yes, I mean, it's it's ultimately, you know, right now I trade my time for money. And as a consultant, I'm very, very aware of my time almost to my own detriment. And with this, yeah, I mean, of course, I put a ton of time in upfront, but people just sign up in the middle of the night and sweet. Like, that's awesome, I didn't have to do anything!

Michele Hansen  3:52 
So I'm curious. When you were when you had a you know, sort of we call them corporate jobs like were you? I wonder if were you a consultant like were you time tracking?

Colleen Schnettler
No.

Michele Hansen
Oh, okay.

Colleen Schnettler  4:05 
So I've done them. All right. I've done the salaried not time track to time tracking as what I do now. And now the product. So it's exciting.

Michele Hansen  4:14 
Yeah, it is exciting. I just remember when I went from working at an agency and having to, you know, time track three minutes spent replying to an email to then working in a product company and not having to time track and it was like, Oh, my God, this is -- this is amazing.

Colleen Schnettler  4:34 
Yeah, it feels totally different. So I'm, you know, I'm trying to enjoy it. And I'm also trying to think about, like, how I can continue to try and find -- I don't really feel like I found any kind of real product market fit. Like I've definitely found a pain point because people are signing up. But, I mean, I think that that there's a lot of opportunity to find deeper pain points in more specific niches. Because not everyone is this is the weirdest thing I know I keep bringing this up, but like people are signing up, but only about 50% of the people who sign up and they have to pay me when they sign up, are using it. And I'm emailing them. And I'm trying to see if I can help them. But if they don't use it, they're going to churn. So I feel like I'm a little I don't want to say concerned, but I'm cognizant of the fact that I think I'm going to have a high churn rate this first month, because people are going to be like, why am I paying for this thing I don't use?

Michele Hansen  5:27 
Yeah, I think that's something worth diving into. And you mentioned that you're emailing people. And we've talked a little bit about different approaches, you've taken to those emails, in terms of copy and subject lines, and all those sorts of things. And so I'm curious, if you've been, like trying anything differently, or if you've had any more people get back to you. And you've kind of gotten any more insight into why that might be happening?

Colleen Schnettler  5:53 
Nope. I mean, I can't get anyone...

Michele Hansen
That sounds frustrating.

Colleen Schnettler
It is it's frustrating. So in the beginning, I had a free tier, which I no longer have, there's no free free option. And the people in the free tier would would engage with me a lot more and and they seemed it was seemed like because they were very grateful. I mean, most of them expressed gratitude that I had solved this problem for them for free. No one emailed me back who was paying me money. Now to be fair, it's only what 1012 people that are paying me money, they don't want to talk to me. So I'm right. Have you been

Michele Hansen  6:30 
Like, can you like look at their email addresses and see like, are they Gmails that are signing up? Or like people at companies?

Colleen Schnettler  6:38 
There are Gmails? It's both. It's a combination of Gmail and custom domains. And it you know, I haven't even been looking to see if they're, you know, what, it just occurred to me, I haven't even been checking to see if those emails are opened. So there could be something else going on, or they just don't want to talk to me, which is is what it is, I think, though, like why I just I don't want to stress about it. But like, why would you sign up for something you have to pay for and not use it? Like did i know.

Mic...