Table of Contents
- Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
- How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
- Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
- What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
- What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
- Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
- What other products are you working on? (if any)
Justyna Ilczuk is the founder of watchlimits - a browser plugin to limit excessive video watching, but still enjoy your favorite content.
Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
Watchlimits is a chrome extension that helps user watch content without falling into a rabbit hole of "just another video".
This is the problem that I face myself, some series are just very engaging and I thought it would be nice to build a neat extension to solve it. In the middle of an exciting series it's really hard to stop and it's easy to lose track of time and for example lose out on sleep.
Additionally, I am fascinated by the opportunities given by browser extensions as they are quite powerful. That was my second source of inspiration for this product.
How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
As I started working on watchlimits in the middle of March 2022 it's still very new. It has about 20 active users right now.
My growth strategy is building in public, content marketing for SEO (not effective yet), posting on reddit and lately a side project marketing with https://www.netflixcalculator.com/
Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
JavaScript + React for the extension
Python + Django for the backend
The main challenges are coming from the complexities of building chrome extension. The api is sometimes a bit weird and poorly documented.
Submitting to chrome store is a pain, because the reviews are slow. This makes it harder to address bugs quickly, so I have to be super careful while releasing.
What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
Trello, Notion for project management
Stripe for billing
Gumroad for initial distribution
React is my favorite framework
Storybook is also a great tool for component driven development
GSuite - easy way to get professional email
What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
You need to have patience for results and impatience for action.
It's difficult not to see results immediately, but as long as you make good progress that can compound long term, you shouldn't lose hope :). Things take time!
Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
I'm a big fan of https://www.mfmpod.com/ - the energy there is amazing. I always end up more energized and inspired after listening to them and I learned a lot about business too.
From a completely different perspective: https://wannabe-entrepreneur.com/episodes/ is a hidden gem.
What other products are you working on? (if any)
My latest micro-project is: https://www.netflixcalculator.com/
https://tinystruggles.com/projects/
<- section of my blog that documents the projects I've been working on this year.
