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.:
Baptiste Arnaud is the founder of Typebot - Typebot is a SaaS to build conversational apps without coding
Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
I've often been told that if you don't have a project idea, copy what's working and add your vision to it.
That's what I did. I love Typeform (a tool that allows you to create beautiful step-by-step forms) and I wanted to create a Typeform alternative.
I looked at the market and discovered Landbot. I immediately fell in love with their conversational experiences. But I was not a fan of their building experience.
That's when I decided that I'll be working on a Landbot alternative, with my vision: Freedom and Ease of use.
How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
I currently have 47 customers after ~2 years. The first pricing plan (the most popular) grew from $15 to $39 today.
What helped me bootstrap my product is doing a lifetime deal campaign on SaaS Mantra. It helped me get ~700 early adopters who would eventually become a fan of the product. It also allowed me to feel less alone.
After the lifetime deal campaign, I didn't have a clear strategy but just build a great product and don't forget to spread the word (cf my recipe Q5)
Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
I'm a coder and like to do things myself.
Typebot is a Monorepo powered by Turborepo. It is composed of 2 main applications:
the builder, where you build your
typebotsthe viewer, where your user answer the typebot
These apps are built with awesome web technologies including Typescript, Next.js, Prisma, Chakra UI, Tailwind CSS.
For more info about the product source code: https://github.com/baptisteArno/typebot.io
What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
— SendInBlue for emails
— Plausible for landing-page analytics
— Sentry for bug tracking
— N8N for simple automations
What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
I kept building without even talking about what's new.
My marketing recipe is:
1. Make sure that you have a product with a great UI and UX. If your product isn't pleasant to use, nobody will talk about it.
2. Work on new features and
3. Reach out to the world
4. Share with existing users
I think founders often forget the last 2 steps. Hitting the "Deploy" button for a product feature is not enough.
You have to spread the word, that means publishing on ALL your social media account and try to share it to new acquisition channels (ProductHunt, Subreddits, Hacker News...).
And you also need to share the news with existing customers via a newsletter or a community group.
Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
Podcast: The HubermanLabs
Books: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, Atomic Habits
Newsletters: TL;DR
