Hi I'm John and I'm bootstrapping GetCredo.com, doing mid six figures in revenue

Introductions
#1

Hi there! First time semi-technical founder with an SEO and digital marketing background. I’m bootstrapping my first company, GetCredo.com, which is a platform for marketing agencies and consultants to get new clients, and for businesses to find the right agency/consultant to work with.

I started working on it full time in late September 2015. In a little under 20 months it’s grown to about $400k/yr in revenue, which is pretty awesome. Current focus is growing the number of projects created on the platform, so I have a lot of growth experiments going and going to be running more.

I still feel like I am just getting started, but looking forward to contributing to this community!

1 Like
#2

Awesome, I’ll probably try your service soon. Adjusting a budget slider is so much better than going through agencies without knowing if they’ll ask $2k or $10k minimum.

#3

Awesome thanks for that feedback! People have a love/hate relationship with the slider, so nice to get some positive feedback.

If I can ask, why not try it right now? I’m still trying to nail the messaging. Any feedback on what’s not clear?

#4

Still working on the site, press kit, etc. plus trying to do some marketing myself to learn.

It was a bit hard to find the PR tag since it’s not present in the dropdown menu.

#5

A very interesting service. It solves a real problem for many people: “How the heck can I trust the SEO agency/consultant I’m recruiting?” I’m impressed that you got Rand Fishkin to give you a testimonial!

Why do you prefer agencies from US, UK, and Australia only? I ask as a slighted New Zealander… :slight_smile:

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#6

Got it, and appreciate the feedback! I’m definitely focusing on SEO/content and the main two paid channels - AdWords and Facebook. I’ve thought about how to make search easier to expand what people see they can find, such as PR for you.

#7

Hey thanks! It seems to be solving a problem for people, though communicating the real value (agencies/consultants are vetted, get the right project not just a vendor, etc) is harder than I thought it would be. And yeah Rand is a great guy and a good friend.

I 90% focus on US because this is a good size market and most US companies don’t want to hire someone not in the US. I have very few UK or Australian consultants/agencies, and actually am not even bringing on new consultants/agencies right now.

#8

Hi John,

Thanks for sharing. Seems like you may have a lot to contribute here. Did you start with an “MVP?” Were there some things that you did manually in the background instead of launching with automation? If so, how did you pick those things, and have you retained any of those, or did you have to scramble to implement automation in these areas?

#9

Hey Shane! I did start with an MVP - it was literally a Google Doc of people. That has over the years turned into what I have now, but definitely have gone through a ton of iterations. Everything was manual at first, then started automating different processes. Some of those we’ve gone back to a higher touch model because it works better.

Basically, I feel like when you are running a bootstrapped software company as a solo founder you constantly have to be looking at what is taking up your time and if that is the most valuable thing for you to be working on. Dan Martell has a great grid that he uses to value your own time, and I’ve used that which has helped out a lot.

#10

Awesome. Thanks. You product does seem well suited to starting out the way you describe. Interesting that you found some things that are better done manually. I’ll check out the resource you mentioned. Thanks!

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