Let's take a minute and look back at this crazy year together 🙌
We started off 2020 by going full-time and joining the second batch of TinySeed accelerator. We had decided to go full-time either way, as agreed in the fall of 2019. But TinySeed got us a whole extra year of runway.
In the end of March, the whole world was crumbling down as the pandemic unfolded, and we were waiting for our papers to finalize. When the wire transfer came through, we saluted each other, exhaled with relief, and the journey began.
Here's what we accomplished in 2020:
- Streamlined our workflow using the elements from the Shape Up methodology by Basecamp
- Added in-app messages as another channel in addition to email
- Launched the Help Founders program which helped 50+ founders get free ad placements in relevant podcasts
- Experimented with the $9/mo plan (to learn that it doesn't work as intended for our product)
- Rebuilt our marketing website and the knowledge base (here's the detailed post)
- Hired Asia Orangio (Matos) of DemandMaven as a marketing consultant for three months, which was spectacular
- Published three case studies
- Experimented with a number of paid channels
- Introduced many new product features, such as team support, multiple sender profiles, and much more
- Improved the internal product infrastructure
- Published the ultimate user onboarding guide
- Launched a new podcast called Better Done Than Perfect, with the first season dedicated to user onboarding
- Introduced free concierge setup for all new accounts
- Introduced new flexible gradual billing
- Embarked on a big round of 25 user research interviews with our target audience, to inform our product decisions in 2021
- Built a new feature that empowers our customers to properly manage and onboard company accounts (this is huge for many B2B SaaS founders), to be launched in early 2021
We also did a few podcast interviews this year:
- The Slow, Deliberate Process of Making a SaaS Business Work with Jane Portman of Userlist — Indie Hackers by Courtland Allen
- Combining Sales Demos and Customer Research with Jane Portman — Awkward Silences with Erin May and JH Forster
- E8: Jane Portman, Userlist — Code Story with Noah Labhart
- Why $9/Mo is Better than Freemium — Product-Led Podcast with Ramli John
- 14 // Onboarding with Jane Portman — Metamuse with Adam Wiggins
Benedikt has been also sharing the details of our journey at Slow & Steady — his weekly podcast with Brian Rhea which started in 2019.
It was a challenging but exciting year, and we're looking forward to 2021. Hope you have wonderful holidays, no matter what 💛
— Regards, Jane.