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.:
Faraz Ahmad is the founder of Retro - Team retros made easy
Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
If you're a software engineer, you probably hate retro meetings. They take forever and nothing changes as a result. They feel like a waste of time. But it's nothing wrong with the retro itself. It's how they are run, and the tools they are used to handle them (especially remotely). The best teams I have been a part of do retros regularly. I was underwhelmed with the tools that were out there to do remote retros, so I decided to build one myself. No more Google Docs or Trello.
My goal is to take the teams most dreaded meeting and make it fun, focused, and fast.At a previous company, we used an online retro tool that will not be named, and it was awful. But my company was paying for it! I couldn't believe it. I knew then that I could build something, and make it way better, and someone would pay for it.
How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
Over the past couple years, I have been fairly active on Twitter. I regularly share updates about Retro, challenges I'm facing, and business metrics. I use TweetDeck and search for terms like "team retros" or "sprint retrospectives". I'll comment on threads where people are asking how to run them effectively, or looking to try something new. I don't always plug my app directly, but typically people will click on my profile and see my pinned tweet (which is a link to Retro).
Aside from this, I have a good domain name (retro.app) so I get a lot of organic search traffic.
My focus for the next 6 months is to continue to talk to users and find commonalities. I'm still in the early stages of this product, and it's not quite where I want it to be. I'm not trying to compete on features, instead, having a really solid micro-saas that does retros extremely well. I know I will never be able to compete with larger players, but I think there is a space for a small, simple, easy to use use tool that does retros and does them well. Not everything has to be a monolith.
Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
My tech stack is React & Firebase. I chose this stack because I am most familiar with it. I've been using React & Firebase together for years. I didn't want to get bogged down in learning new technology AND trying to launch a business. The faster I can push out features, the better. As a solo-founder, it's best that I prioritize moving quickly, rather than using the latest framework(s).
What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
Firebase has a lot of great things built it (logging, analytics). Aside from this, I'm using FullStory to watch user sessions. It's been a game changer for me, because I can watch users poke around the application on my own time. Another tool that I've begun to use recently is Retool. It allows me to create internal admin panels quickly with my Firebase data.
What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
It's cliche, but the only thing you need to do is build and talk to users. As soon as I started talking to users frequently, I was uncovering things that I hadn't thought of and started getting traction. I'm averaging about 50 new trials a month.
Consistency would be the next biggest lesson. Since this is something I do on the side (I have a full time job), I realized that I should make the milestones I create smaller. I was getting burned out by trying to do too much.
My new approach is to try to solve my users problems with the least amount of changes possible. It really forces me to be creative. I really enjoy solving problems for my users, and that's what keeps me going.Some thing I realized as well is that you don't have to be part of a lot of online communities to get things going. I honestly didn't feel like I was getting much out of them, and they were distracting. I rather spend my time building stuff.
Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
N/A, I don't read any books or podcasts related to building. I just build and talk to users.
