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25 Comments

Launched public beta of my SaaS, earned over $22,000 in 5 days & $0 in marketing! AMA

Hey there!

My name is Parvez Akther(on Twitter as @parvezvai).

I've been building ThriveDesk with my co-founder since March 2020 and finally able to launched public beta on March 2021.

I know, this is not ideal "Indie hacker" way to build a startup(or MVP) but we wanted built a solid architectural foundation for ThriveDesk first. We've no plan to re-write the software in few years so it has to be solid from the beginning.

ThriveDesk is a Helpdesk(Live chat, Shared inbox, Knowledge base) + Community software.

Here’s some stats when we launched:

  • 400+ emails subscribers
  • 200+ FB group members
  • 1.5K visitors on website

And here is the results 👇👇
Launch stats

Feel free to ask me anything!

  1. 19

    How did you earn $22,000 in 5 days while offering a 14-day free trial?

    1. 1

      We recently introduce 14-days trial. It was non existent on first launch.

  2. 2

    This is a very nice product, congratulations on the launch. Have 2 questions.

    1: On which platforms did you launch your product/From where did you acquire first customers. (e.g producthunt, twitter, etc).

    2: Is paddle better than stripe & others? Is there payout process smooth? Is there any chance of easy account bans like stripe?

    1. 1

      Thanks @mtaimoorhas.

      1. We launched on our own group. You can read more here https://www.indiehackers.com/post/thrivedesk-soft-launched-20k-sales-in-5-days-0-in-marketing-6276ed236c

      2. Stripe is not available in our country so Paddle is the best possible alternative for us.

  3. 2

    Congrats on the launch!

    Are these all Lifetime deals or annual/monthly subscription sales?

    Cheers!

  4. 1

    Very well built, congrats!

  5. 1

    Congrats for the launch!

    • How big is your team. Can you also mention their twitter profile.
    • 3 books the helped you in the journey.
    • 3 people you would recommend everyone to follow.
    • Is this you full time project or just a side project.
    • Did you quit your job to make thrivedesk possible or you were building it along with your job.
    • Did you see conversion drop/increase with paddle as compared to stripe.
    • Why LTD instead of monthly subscriptions.
    1. 1

      Thanks

      • 10+ full timers
      • Rework, Rich dad poor dad
      • Full time project as you can see the team member size :)
      • NO. I'm entrepreneur since I can remember(12+y) :D
      • NO
      • Easy GTM
  6. 1

    Nice work!

    How is ThriveDesk different to the hundreds of existing Helpdesk products out there and what made you think you would succeed when starting 1 year ago?

    1. 1

      Thanks @tiimgreen

      I'm an entrepreneur for last 12+ years and some of my other company/products has thousands of customers worldwide.

      We built ThriveDesk to solve our own problem and then decided to release as SaaS and honestly I don't think i'm near to success yet.

      ThriveDesk is designed for SaaS and eCom business and if you look into our closest competitor like Intercom/Zendesk, they are too expensive. So we wanted to built an all-in-one customer support solution that is affordable for SMBs.

  7. 1

    Wow, congrats.

    My questions:

    • How did you collect the 400 email subscribers and FB group members? (Which tool, what acquisition, what content)
    • Why LTD in the beginning and no monthly payments? Was it easier to sell?
  8. 1

    Couple things:

    1. are these lifetime or annual monthly ?
    2. Why does your lifetime deals include a cheaper plan that doesn't exist anymore?
    3. You show a single price on the website but show multiple options in lifetimes.
    1. 1
      1. Life time deal
      2. We sold very limited num of license/slots. Once it sold we removed that plan.
      3. Yeah subscription is simplified but you check carefully additional users/inbox cost extra. However, we are working on a new pricing structure.
  9. 1

    How do you differentiate ThriveDesk from its competitors?

    Best,

    1. 1

      ThriveDesk is designed for SaaS and eCom business and if you look into our closest competitor like Intercom/Zendesk, they are too expensive. So we wanted to built an all-in-one customer support solution that is affordable for SMBs.

    2. 1
      • Narrow focus (only on startups and eCommerce)
      • We've community that no one has
  10. 1

    It's a beautiful product. Congratulations!

    I wanted to know what was your marketing steps which helped you to gain the early customers? Where did you promote ThriveDesk?

  11. 0

    A happy customer of ThriveDesk!

    What is the tech stack behind TriveDesk?

    1. 0

      Happy to have you as customer @gijovarghese

      ThriveDesk based on micro service architecture. Laraval, Python, Angular, React and MySQL + Mongo + Redis.

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