Whether real or just my own perception, I feel it's time to monetize my startup. There are nearly 700 users, and another 40 on the LaunchRock waiting list, but Refynr needs to make revenue, or I'm afraid it will whither and die...
Here's the current features (see http://Refynr.com):
- Up to 30 custom filters to filter out the clutter from your Twitter Timeline & Facebook News Feed
- A web client that works in all the major browsers, plus a mobile web version for iPad, iPhones, & Android devices (probably Win Mobile and BlackBerry, too)
- Filtered Refynr Stream is saved permanently, so that you can read/search for any items later (such as after your vacation)
- (Optional) Daily Emails, with the latest from your Refynr Stream
Here's the major features that customers/advisors have suggested for the future:
- a Twitter-compatible API, so that feeds could be pulled into other clients/services, such as TweetDeck, HootSuite, etc
- support for Twitter Lists
- support for Twitter Search
- ability to pull in RSS feeds, and add Refynr filters to them
- sell Refynr to companies, as a way to let employees keep up with Social Networks, without the distractions. The company admin would be able to set Filters company-wide (or by department), and I could charge a premium for the service
I'm reaching out to any of you to ask if you can help point me in the right direction. As you may know, I'm a solo founder, first-timer, and bootstrapping Refynr. Getting free customers has gone pretty well, and the technology is solid, but soon I feel I need to move to the next step. The next step could mean getting investments or finding a way to monetize relatively quickly (or other?). I feel it's time for a next major step because:
- I have about 3 more months of my own money to put into Refynr before I start running low
- Acquiring more free customers without generating revenue is burning my cash faster and faster (server costs & no income)
- I have a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), but little marketing skills myself, so need an advisor/consultant to help with sales/marketing
- If someone could concentrate on marketing, then I could focus on the next set of features: RSS, an API, improved UI, etc.
- I am a beta tester for the Twitter Promotions ad platform (one of 600), so have a huge opportunity to market, if only I was good at it! :D
What I've tried:
- LaunchRock: gets people a little more excited because they are put on a waiting list and can tweet about it, but it hasn't made it viral enough to get the thousands of users.
- Pulling hundreds of new visitors to the site via Twitter Promoted Tweets - this gives me a lot of traffic, but the bounce rate tends to be above 70%, so I spend too much for a limited number of sign-ups. This may be that I'm not promoting to the right people on Twitter with these tweets...?
- Charging a one-time $5 fee to sign up. In a week, I was only able to get 3 people to sign up for a mere $5. That was very discouraging!! I know most people don't want to spend anything for Social Network stuff, and that a Trial would be more reasonable, but I figure if more than 3 people won't even pay $5 then the perceived value is not good. Am I not thinking about this right?
My questions to you:
- What steps would you suggest I take next?
- Are there current features that I should enhance to make Refynr more attractive?
- Which of future features would be best to focus on first, in order to monetize?
- Am I at the point where I need a co-founder?
- Or should I work on getting funding?
- Or should I try to find sales consultants to help?
- Other thoughs, ideas, or questions?
- I didn't want to put ads (Google) on Refynr because I think it defeats the purpose of de-cluttering your feeds. Should I reconsider?
Answer in the comments or email me: aaron *at* refynr [dot] com
