Hi .. I'm Paul and I'm bootstrapping myPresences

Introductions
#1

Hi … I have just found bootstrapped through the excellent series by Clifford Oravec (The Epic Guide to Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch — By Yourself).

My background is in development and I have been bootstrapping mypresences.com for the last few years. myPresences is a platform to allow a business owner or agent to manage and build the Online Presence and Reputation of a business and see in one place everything they need to know about their entire online presence and reputation and how to improve! We also monitor everything and tell you in one place everything that has changed (ratings, reviews, comments, photos, profile data, stats).

We have reached around $1k/month in revenue … still a long way to go.

I have definately focused too much on the product and not enough on marketing and sales … and am looking to focus far more on this in the coming months.

For you bootstrappers I would love you to try the service … there is a 14 day free trial and I am happy to pass on a very generous discount code if you want to use it more. When you signup be sure to specify you are a startup and we will recommend a big list of places to promote your business there and then show you how to optimize your presence there.

Best of luck to everyone. And have a great 2017.

1 Like
#2

Welcome, Paul!

FYI: your website home page’s headline tells me nothing about what you product is or does. If I landed on this without any context I’d probably immediately hit the back button.

Whereas the description in your intro above was much clearer and made me interested in checking out your product:

“manage and build your business’s Online Presence and Reputation”

or

"see in one place everything you need to know about your business’s entire online presence and reputation…and how to improve! "

Although both of these need work, I suspect they’d convert new users to trial sign ups at a much higher rate.

#3

Hi Steve … thanks for taking a look.

I have tried different combinations for the homepage headline and the first few versions were focused on phrases like “Manage your business’s Online Presence and Reputation” and different combinations.

I think the current manifestation is more based on looking at other established product headlines and for me they tended to be more of an emotional statement about the product’s outcomes than the specifics of what the product does.

Eg. Xero
"Let Xero do the hard work this summer"

Mailchimp
"Being yourself makes all the difference"

Harvest
"Let’s get to work.
Spend less time tracking and more time doing."

I am not sure this is the right approach and maybe it only works when you are already established and people already know your brand and what you do.

Thanks for the heads up though … I had been thinking of making a change there as well.

Cheers

#4

Don’t compare yourself with Xero or Mailchimp. Visitors mostly already know the name and what the company is doing. You are a blank slate. Your value proposition should be crystal clear.
Just ask your customers how they would call or describe your business in a few words. E.g. my first thought on “Manage your business’s Online Presence and Reputation” was something along a webhost with social media monitoring.
What kind of tech stack do you use, and do you actually integrate with all the services on an API level?

#5

You’re welcome!

Have you tried doing some basic usability tests? I ask because I tried your site and was somewhat lost in the process. Watching a couple of first-time users get to know your product is illuminating (and, in my own experience, humbling), and could substantially increase that $1,000 MRR.

#6

unboot … yep … I made the same point in my reply above.

The tech stack is Python\Django\Postgres\Mongo\RabbitMQ\AWS.

I integrate with services via API where one is available.

#7

thanks steve … I have done some basic usability testing but need to do some more and spend some time on onboarding.

I noticed you had an account … thanks again for taking a look. The system is currently focused on local businesses that have a physical address such as Restaurants, Cafes, Salons etc so the experience would not have as good for you. The sweet spot would be a local business located in the US, Australia or the UK.

I also updated your profile to record you are a Startup and a Software Company so if you log back in and go to the services screen there will now be a list of additional services that you can list your business on.

Cheers