9 Things I realized while making $5,000 from my startup 🀯

Karthik Tatikonda
26 replies
Hey Makers, Nithin and I started LaunchPedia on Jan 8th 2023 and it's been an year of roller coaster ride🎒 From literally making no money in the first 6 months and coming close to shutting down, to making $5000 from our digital products in the last 4 months. Here are the 9 lessons I learned from our journey: β†’ It's not wrong to pivot. It's better than giving up. β†’ Build multiple small bets, until you know what works β†’ Plan monetization whenever you're building a new product β†’ Build products that make money, especially when your savings are on line β†’ Don't overlook email marketing. Collect email addresses, build funnels and setup email sequences from day 1 β†’ Don’t delay your launch. Ship fast, validate the idea, get feedback, and iterate. β†’ Leverage side project marketing. Build free tools and directory sites to increase your distribution and upsell your paid products. β†’ Validate the idea using short term distribution strategies. Ex: PH launch, listing on directories, & Ads. β†’ You don't need to build fancy products, you can also build info products as long as it is helping people.

Replies

Rachel Nguyen
Thanks for sharing
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Manoj R
Thanks for sharing this Karthik & Nithin, I've been following you for very long! Congratulations on your achievements.
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Karthik Tatikonda
Thanks a lot man @manoj_11 πŸ€— Let us know if you have any suggestions on how we can make LaunchPedia more useful for makers like you.
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Sabaat Parasad
"Bootstrapping my startup to $5,000 revealed key lessons: persistence triumphs, frugality matters, agility is vital, and relationships drive success. πŸš€πŸ’‘"
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It's truly inspiring to see how you turned things around and learned so much along the way. Your 9 lessons are pure gold for anyone starting a new venture.
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PRIYANKA MANDAL
Wow, what a journey with LaunchPedia. Thanks for sharing your insights. I love the lessons, especially about pivoting and the importance of quick iteration.
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Karthik Tatikonda
Glad to know that @priyankamanra πŸ€— Pivoting is one of the best decision we took in the last year. Otherwise, we would have shut LaunchPedia down by now.
Chris Lester
Love the insight! Love the mission! Thanks for sharing Karthik!
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Hiep Nguyen
Congratulations on your success in the journey. Love the insights! Thanks for sharing this!
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Sofie Davison
Fantastic insights!
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Anh Ngo (Austin)
"Build free tools and directory sites to increase your distribution and upsell your paid products." this is interesting, can you share some examples?
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Karthik Tatikonda
Hey @ngohungtheanh These are free tools and directory site we built: 1. whattomeme. com (meme library for startup founders) - We plugged our places to promote your list and reddit ebook in the footer 2. phhunters. com (list of product hunt hunters) - We plugged workbook in the side bar.
Hα»“ng Γ’n Nguyα»…n
Thanks for sharing Karthik & Nithin, I would like to apply your lessons to my process. Thank you so much!!!
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Shimron Singh
Nice to see other entrepreneurs already making money in the first year!! Appreciate the helpful tip :)
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Bobo Teei
Great App thanks for sharing such idea
Ngocne
Tks for sharing. Congratulations on your achievements
Antonios Marios Christonasis
Really useful tips! Thanks for sharing!