Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app
Launch a bare-bones first version with three features, then keep improving it
Ugly v1 grew into the current product; no early numbers given
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- pre-funding
In their words
Koby Conrad - I speedran an ai app from 0 to $1m/yr in 10 months
KobyThat being said, I consider myself non-technical, but like I built the first version of this myself, um, as like a learn-to-code project when I like 2020, 2021, like before AI, okay? Before vibe coding was a thing. Like I went through a boot camp and like I taught myself how to code. And the first version of this was like ugly, if you can find like the Product Hunt like 1.0. This was the first version, okay?
KobyThere was three features. There was a timer, there was some sunflower graphics I got off of Fiverr, there was this like journal, which is just like a CRUD app and you could like edit the thing. Okay?
KobyUm, and I think that like if I was like 19, and was like, "Oh, I'm thinking about building this feature and," um like like this is so bad compared to what it is, right? Like if I was 19, and I was just like thinking about like building these features and I wasn't sure, just build the smallest thing you freaking can, it can be ugly as hell, and just launch it and put it into the world, because you're not playing a game of trying to build what's what like my version of Sunflower is today, you're playing a game of like, how can I make this system just like incrementally better?
KobyAnd like this isn't probably going to be your first app. Uh you're going to keep building and making it better, and better, and better, and better, and better. Uh like you're not in the app building game, you're in the self-improvement game. So I would just like build the smallest version of whatever it is you can build that like your users will like actually use, and like get that into the world, and then just do that, and then one day it's …
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More from this episode
- Hire the biggest creator in your niche as a salaried team member with equity50-100K link clicks a month from one creator; founder calls it the core of go-to-market
- Get the best-known expert in your field to be the face of the companyGiven as an example of the approach working; no numbers
- Ask conferences what they'd give you for double their top sponsor packageFounder says it beats small test buys: better treatment and brand effect; no numbers
- Start free like Duolingo, then add a monthly paywall once AI costs pile upFree model failed: investors wanted revenue and AI costs hit hundreds of thousands
- Add a yearly plan and pre-select it on the paywallAdding annual brought some annual revenue; defaulting to it brought 'a lot more'
- Default to paying now, with a toggle to switch on the free trialMade more money than the default-annual paywall; no numbers
- Lower your prices when your users have little moneyLower prices made more money; no numbers given
- Before the paywall, promise to remind people before their free trial ends+48% revenue, +70% annual revenue, +46% trial conversions, +30% trial starts
- Build everything around the one simple thing users do every dayTimer is the most important feature; AI chat alone had poor retention
- Let the in-app AI coach follow up on its own and reply in the community4M+ messages handled in a year; users say it saved their lives
- Pitch investors with revenue growth and a future vision, not user countsFirst user-focused deck failed; the revenue-and-future deck raised post-YC
- Put in your own money, then ask people you made rich to invest$100K of own money plus ~$350K from his network after years of no funding
Tags: product-hunt, mvp, learn-to-code