👋 Hello, Idris here! Welcome to this week's Indiniche newsletter. Each week, I feature tips and stories from successful self-made founders, share insights on building great products, talk about growing your business, and showcase essential tools to help you build and scale better.
If you've found this newsletter helpful, please spread the word to your friends and consider subscribing if you haven't yet
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the indieniche newsletter! Thank you for joining us on this journey. This week, we shine a spotlight on a remarkable success story: Loom.
Loom, the brainchild of vinay, shahed and Joe, is a video communication tool that captured the attention of many, eventually being acquired by Atlassian in 2023 for a staggering $975 million.
My admiration for Loom dates back to its early days, long before the Atlassian acquisition. I've been an avid user, integrating it into my daily routine for tasks ranging from creating video walkthroughs of product features to sharing user feedback with my team and fostering collaboration among teammates.
Recently, I stumbled upon a tweet by the CEO reflecting on the company's journey. It struck a chord with me, prompting me to extract some valuable lessons that we can all apply to our own endeavors. Here are some key takeaways that can enrich your product development journey...
The journey of Loom exemplifies that there's rarely a perfect idea at the outset. In fact, they initially explored six different concepts before settling on their path. Loom began its journey as a user-testing marketplace named Open Test. However, they soon realized that true validation and evolution come from listening to users over time.
Loom's founders swiftly recognized that for their user testing marketplace, companies were less interested in expert opinions and more focused on direct user feedback. This realization was a pivotal moment.
During their initial seven months, Loom generated a mere $600. However, they prioritized product refinement over chasing investments. This strategy taught them the value of focusing on the product's quality.
To gather feedback, Loom cold-emailed 300 founders to use their Chrome extension. Unexpectedly, a research team at Harvard used Loom to summarise insights from seven feedback videos, revealing unanticipated uses of the product
Loom's emergence coincided with the rise of remote work, a period when companies prioritized collaboration tools. Recognizing this demand was pivotal to their success.
After achieving product-market fit, Loom gained over 3,000 signups following their launch on Product Hunt, a significant leap from their previous user base.
Limit distractions while building, and focus on the product rather than investor meetings, and meet-ups that distract you from building, there is also a shared amount of good luck needed in building.
You can find the link to the original tweet here, Thanks for reading through,
Reply to this email with your best product tip from Loom, I’d love to hear from you .
The indie tip of this week features how to find users who are facing your product problem on Reddit. This can help you get your first set of users
I found this wonderful tip while browsing Reddit and it works like a charm
Open Google search and write a single keyword your product is popularly associated with and put a double colon at the front alongside the Reddit website
(Product keyword: Reddit.com)
Check out rapidforms built by sidi jeddou.
Rapidforms simplifies form creation with stylish, embeddable forms. What sets it apart is its lifetime pricing of $199, a refreshing alternative to subscription models like Typeform, Tallyforms, and co. Plus, its user-friendly interface and advanced style editor make it a standout choice. Try it out and share your feedback!
What is the only food that can never go bad?
Let me know your answer in the comments.
Do you have a product you'd like to share with our community of over 1,000 indieniche founders?
Drop us a line detailing what makes your product stand out, whether it's a SaaS, marketplace, app, newsletter, or anything else innovative. We're eager to hear from you!
We will pick a product to feature for next week’s newsletter. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to hearing from you.