I am getting married in 5 days and my startup has 0 revenue!

Ullekh Niraula
11 replies
I am getting married with my girlfriend on Dec 7. Everything is going good till today but I am feeling quite hopeless and insecure because the company I started few months ago making no revenue at all. I know it will take time but still the fear of failing is inside me. Do you have any suggestion for me to propel both part of my life successfully? Also, my startup is https://www.xpertspool.com, aimed to provide low-cost vetted web experts. I get sign ups but no conversions yet. Would love to get your feedback. TIA

Replies

Letisha Perry
I want to say hang in there and congratulations! My company is 6 years old and wasn't profitable until the 3rd year. We tipped a million in revenue this year and I still struggle with the fear of failure. Enjoy your wedding and new bride! Trust your instinct and keep moving forward!
Eric Turner
How long has it been since you've had people start signing up? I think a lack of conversion usually comes from a sense of non-urgency on behalf of the customer. Especially on a product like this, where the costs are so high. Why would they buy it now?
Ronan Wall
Hang in there @ullekhniraula Focus on the demand side of your marketplace. It should be taking up 90% of your time. Find a unqiue selling point or campaign to cut through all of the other companies in this space and go target small businesses on Linkedin. Get a small number of them to work with you and deliver amazing results. Then use those results for your next campaign 'built an iOS app with a 5 star rating in 30 days for $10k...' etc etc. And rinse and repeat. Also incentivize the customers you bring in to attract your next customer 'you get 5 free days of dev for every customer you send our way'. Go luck (with the business and the wedding)
Alejandro Cantarero
I'll add a bit of a counterpoint here since most comments seem to be focusing on the startup side of this, rather than the personal. Balancing a startup and a marriage is going to depend a lot on your spouse. Entrepreneurs have a lot of tolerance to push through the rough times and make it work. Your spouse may or may not have that same viewpoint. If supporting another generation (kids, parents, both) is in the mix it gets even trickier (assuming you don't have a really high net-worth where money is not an issue, but then this whole discussion is probably irrelevant, so I'll assume money is an issue). Nothing is more important here than clear communication. Your spouse needs to be a partner in the business, just as much as any investor or customer. This doesn't mean they have to know all the details of the company, but they must be just as committed to you pursuing this path as you are. I think it is also really important to separate your business from your personal life. Just like you have to make tough decisions about your company, you need to be able to objectively decide if the pursuit of your startup is negatively impacting your marriage. To be honest, sometimes you may have to bail on the startup for the sake of your marriage. Just a personal opinion, but I think not enough is written in general about balancing personal life with the "do whatever it takes to succeed" side of running a business. Not focusing on this can lead to bad outcomes in your personal life, which can be even worse than bad outcomes in your professional life.
Sanaz Bidad
Congratulations!;)
Tatiana Kukova, PhD
The social environment matters a lot to start-up founders, and I understand your worries. First, I would recommend finding out what identity standard of 'success,' 'optimism,' and 'motivations or capabilities' you have. The meanings of 'success,' for example, are the essence of who you are. They drive you further. "Feeling quite hopeless and insecure ... making no revenue" to me indicates that you haven't confirmed your identity standard of success yet. This is normal, and there is nothing wrong with that at this stage. The problem, however, lies in the meanings that your head gives you. Because of that, your head has started to produce more and more thoughts in a negative direction, which you describe as "the fear of failing is inside me." Know what meanings your head gives you first. Then, you'll see that it has a firm grip on you at the moment. Notice it. It is not you; it's how you look (according to your head's thoughts) to others in a social environment. You can go to Chapter 3, pp. 36-43 of my book to check what other tech start-up founders have in their heads. Later chapters provide even more examples. If in doubt, post a question here, and I'll try to help more.
Dhruv Bhatia
Congratulations! As for the 0 revenue, startups often take a long time to succeed and even to hit revenue. However, if you have immediate financial constraints, you can try the following: 1. Time-box your startup. How many months of runway do you have left? 2. To extend your runway, you can take up a side hustle that pays some bills. 3. Change your focus on your startup to make it more revenue and profit centric. Are there low hanging features/services you could focus on that would help get you revenue quickly? You could also tie up with partners and maybe make a cut in the revenue.
Jasper Ruijs
Have you asked those people who signup, why they don't proceed? If everything that you are doing right now isn't working, what has changed in this month? This is what I would change. - I dislike websites where you have to make your own account. It takes a lot of time, just add a Google or Facebook login, and people would move faster through the onboarding. - Your UX is vague at best. Your explanation GIF is different from the original process. The left window is weird as if you are adding stuff to a digital shopping cart? - Though spot competing with Fiverr and Upwork. If I were to hire an external expert. I won't need a second person for planning. Then I would go to a creative agency. So the question is, what do you offer differently. Also, don't go for lower prices, because Fiverr and Upwork will always have lower prices. - In terms of your growth hacking strategies, probably your Facebook and Google Add words aren't getting you the right customers. So I suggest switching your attention to Youtube and LinkedIn. In summary, you have a beautiful website, but not an efficient site. To convince people to hire experts. It would help if you put their faces first and not your company branding. Remember, you are a platform, not an agency.
Jeremy Cleverly
First off, congratulations on both the launch of your product and your upcoming marriage! Truly, let both of those things sink in before you dive into the weeds on your product launch. I've launched and successfully exited a healthcare company before, but recently launched an app based company and it is a whole new experience. That being said, many of the challenges remain the same, and unfortunately fine-tuning the answer will take a little experimentation on your part. If you're looking for users/reviews have you tried utilizing targeted Facebook Ads? Possibly offering the product for free for the first "x" number of days for the first "y" number of people to sign up? Also, you might want to try limiting your advertising to a small niche you believe you could dominate initially. A quick look at your product and it seems similar to UpWork (not knocking you). You could possibly target people (like myself) who have had a poor experience using UpWork in the past. In closing, don't get bogged down by setbacks. Focus on what you have achieved and, if I could give one piece of advise, refuse to quit. Once you take quitting off the table it forces your ind to come up with creative solutions to whatever issue you are facing. Best of luck and congratulations again!
Rohit philip
Congratulations! First enjoy the wedding and enjoy the week. You guys need to have talk and have a clear communication she will be direct or indirect going to part of your startup journey. Have quality time with your spouse when you get time. Coming back to Startup – Change your focus on your startup to make it more revenue and profit centric look into competitors marketplace model try to look into the organic traffic reports. Plan the next step on the side try to get job so that you can pay your bills. All the best. If you need any help reach out the community any time.
Sabine Ruest
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