Entrepreneur-ing In Public: Journey Log #4
Autopest goes multilingual!
I teach entrepreneurship at Duke and Iām publicly growing a company ā Autopest ā from $0 to $100k/year in revenue in order to help entrepreneurs better understanding the process of building startups. Learn more about my journey here.
I had a fun surprise this week. Someone registered for Autopest and used it to pester someone in a foreign language. I have no idea what the language was (in part because I Autopest protects emails and doesnāt make them accessible to anyoneā¦ including me!), but I know the email wasnāt in English.
I bring this up because I hadnāt built Autopest with the intention of non-English speakers using it. I hadnāt even considered it. However, from what I can tell, the A.I. read the original email and created a beautiful follow-up sequence in the same language.
Soā¦ there you have itā¦ Autopest officially has multilingual support. Yay!
Obviously, the ability to support multiple languages wasnāt an intentional feature, so Iām not going to take any real credit for it. Instead, Iām going to use it as an opportunity to rehash one of the points Iām constantly making about why entrepreneurs shouldnāt focus on features.
Lots of entrepreneurs launch their startups, struggle to get users, and think the reason theyāre struggling is because they arenāt offering the right features. As a result, they keep adding features while hoping new features will entice more users. Itās called āfeature creep,ā and it never helps. It just makes products more complex and unwieldy.
In a way, my unintentional ability to support multiple languages is a great example of why you canāt āfeatureā yourself to success. To understand why, consider the potential benefit of Autopest supporting multiple languages. Iāve technically opened Autopest to millions of new users. Isnāt that incredible?
Nope!
In practice, making Autopest available to millions of new users doesnāt mean anything because none of those people know about it and arenāt going to use it unless I find a way to market to them. Until I can do that ā which isnāt going to be happening anytime soon ā all those millions of potential users might as well not exist.
The same is true for your company. Donāt let feature creep distract you from the real work you should be doing. Focus on getting users who want what you already have and ignore everyone else.
-Aaron
Core Metrics
WEEKLY ACQUISITION METRICS:
Site Visitors: 445 uniques (-8%)
New Free Users: 50 (+6%)
Website Conversion Rate: 11.2%
New Paid Users: 0
AGGREGATE ACQUISITION METRICS:
Total Free Users: 250
Total Paid Users: 1
Total Revenue: $15
Total Costs: $20.91
Net Revenue: -$5.91
WEEKLY USAGE METRICS:
Extension Installs: 13
Unique Senders: 6
Funnel Analysis
In my previous update, I explained that very few of my new registrants are actually using Autopest. Since Autopest is a freemium product, if nobody uses it once theyāve registered, itās never going to make any money. As a result, I have to find a way to turn new users into active users.
To help me solve this issue, Iāve begun tracking two new funnel metrics : Chrome Extension Installs and Unique Senders. Hereās what they mean and why Iām tracking themā¦
Chrome Extension Installs
Autopest users donāt technically need to install the Chrome extension. All they need to do is bcc āstart@autopest.comā when sending emails. However, when users install the extension, I get to place a free, persistent advertisement for Autopest inside their Gmail accounts that can remind them to use it. This advertising space is critical (as Iām about to explain when I discuss the second new metric Iām tracking).
Unfortuantely, 99% of my current Autopest signups are coming directly from the website, which means I have to convince people to install the Chrome extension after they create their accounts. Iām currently not doing a great job of convincing them, which is why only 13 of 50 new users this past week ā 26% ā actually installed it.
Iām going to work on improving that number.
Unique Senders
Turning someone into a devoted Autopest user requires getting them to send emails. Unfortunately, as I mentioned last week, only three people have done this so far.
This week, I added a major new piece of messaging that teaches people how to use Autopest the first time they open a compose window after installing the Chrome extension. It looks like this:
So far, this new āexplainerā box helped me go from having three people use Autopest during the entire first six weeks of its existence to six people using it last week. Admittedly, six people in one week still isnāt a lot, but itās a heck of a lot more than three people in six weeks. Iāll take it!
As mentioned, the āexplainerā box only appears if users install the Chrome Extension, which, again, is a reason for me to start emphasizing extension installs. Hopefully more extension installs equal more active Autopest users and, as a result, more unique Autopest users every week.
Iāll keep tinkering and update you on my progress next week!