

Getting to €20k in MRR in 90 days - blackdogie
http://blog.rubyandduke.com/2015/05/13/how-we-built-e20000-in-monthly-recurring-revenue-for-our-start-up-within-90-days-of-launch/

======
bemmu
I thought no-one would bother filling out contact details / CC number without
getting to a desktop first. After looking at your data and then checking my
own analytics, I'm wrong.

Even for Candy Japan, I see 13% of conversions from mobile, 12% from tablet.
And this despite the site not being designed for mobile at all. Sounds like
fixing my mobile side might actually be a great opportunity for getting some
more conversions.

~~~
kaolinite
It's quite possible this changed with iOS7 with the introduction of iCloud
Keychain, which enabled storage of credit card information. I've found myself
buying a lot more stuff on the mobile web since then, things that previously I
only would have bought on a desktop.

~~~
eonw
A company I do work for has been doing a million+ or more in monthly credit
card sales from iOS and android devices since '08\. The iCloud Keychain didnt
really increase numbers measurably at all.

When I started work for them I didn't believe so many people were willing to
buy via mobile devices. Luckily, so was the competition, whom were not on
their game and didnt want to accept such truths... so we ate their lunch. ;)

~~~
kaolinite
Are you talking about mobile web or mobile apps? I'm only referring to
transactions that take place through the web browser.

If you're talking about the mobile web though, fair enough - I find that
surprising. It has certainly altered my habits.

~~~
eonw
im specifically talking about the mobile web. this also happened to be adult
related material... so maybe there was more incentive to get the card out?

------
johnward
The fact that these boxes keep turning into successful small businesses is
amazing to me. Especially when this box already has a competitor that I
thought of as soon as I figured out what it is.

The article wasn't as insightful as I hoped. Though I'm pretty impressed by
that growth in 3 months. You often see things like SaaS growing much slower. I
see people talk about taking years to scale to 20k in monthly recurring
revenue and they did it in 3 months. I appreciate that they shared their story
but it seems like mostly they built a following by sharing dog pictures on
social media. Maybe that's the lesson?

They did drop some info about AdWords not working which sounds like the
targeting might have been weak or just not good for their target audience. The
100 conversions from a 10,000 person email list is very low for email. Most
lists outperform any other media in conversion rates from my experience but
those lists are filtered before people even join. It sounds like they have a
bunch of people that simply like dogs and decided to join the mailing list. I
could see why the conversion could be so low in that case. I still think
focusing on a better mailing sequence is an easily hanging fruit to attack but
it looks like social is working for you. It would be interesting to see churn
numbers in a few months.

~~~
aakilfernandes
> I appreciate that they shared their story but it seems like mostly they
> built a following by sharing dog pictures on social media. Maybe that's the
> lesson?

I think the lesson is figure out your marketing channel before you build.

------
mpeg
I like the acquisition success story, people bash on Facebook ads but they're
probably the best online channel when you have a very specific audience you
want to target with high reach (dog owners, UK&I)

Just doesn't work as well for retail products / subscriptions when your
audience is not necessarily ready to buy, and you just end up with worthless
likes and no conversions.

For instance, FB targeting women 25-35 for online clothes shopping probably
results in lower conversion rates than Google, even though the audience
demographics could be the same, because search translates to buying intent.

~~~
niallharbison
We wouldn't have had the growth we have had without Facebook. Its the most
targeted and cost effective ad platform the world has ever seen. Not suited to
every business of course but I do think a lot of people underestimate just how
effective it can be.

~~~
Avalaxy
Don't you get tons of fake likes? Because my experience is that the majority
of the likes I got were fake.

~~~
nine_k
I suspect the number, and the very presence, of likes on your company's page
is inconsequential. What matters is the percent of conversions (that is,
purchases) for ad impressions. FB can target ads very narrowly.

~~~
johnward
I've ran campaigns that targeted likes and I feel like many of them are phony
but I've also ran target campaigns to lead pages as an affiliate and had
success in the past.

------
mrborgen
Great job! May I ask how much money you set off to do marketing before you
launched?

------
eonw
20k is nice, but how profitable is it?

------
sillypog
Is it recurring revenue if it hasn't recurred yet?

~~~
beambot
Of course it is... they just don't know the churn rate (or CAC) yet -- both of
which are crucial to the recurring revenue value equation.

------
yarper
This looks like such a good place to work. I love dogs and all doggie related
things make me happy. No wonder you guys aren't having trouble getting
customers.

~~~
niallharbison
Its the one thing I didn't write about is that we all bring our dogs to work
and are trying to build a world class culture as much as anything. When you do
what you love its just doesn't even feel remotely like work!

~~~
yarper
Wow! Is it like a dog-creche or do you let them kind of roam the office?

Please be sure to post to the HN who's hiring when you're looking!

------
joelennon
Great post Niall. Just wondering what groundwork you had laid down before the
90 days. Also, staggering numbers on the Bow Wow Times site. Do you think it's
mainly down to the fact that people just love dogs (and articles about dogs)
or is there anything you guys did that would be replicable for other B2C
markets?

------
pkaye
I wonder what the gross profits are.

~~~
niallharbison
Niall the CEO of company here. We are pretty close to 50 depending on where
they ship to, what package people go on etc. It starts to get way more
interesting with volume though at 5000+ boxes providing we get that far!

~~~
eonw
50 what? %, $, etc?

------
creznew
Do you have some sort of deal/sponsorship with any of the product suppliers?

------
kpatterson
Commenting for a later read. This is great stuff for getting the ball rolling.

