$33K MRR with a simple Slack bot

Karma bot is a simple Slack bot doing $33K MRR. Your business doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be unique It doesn't have to be ground breaking tech It doesn't even need AI 🤷🏻

It just has to solve a painful problem. Like Karma Bot does.

(source)

• Karma Bot’s value proposition is very clear from their landing page - the help improve connection in remote teams, and help with retention.
• They even have a savings calculator on their website - The money that teams can save because of staff turnover.

Interesting Lessons from their journey:

• From the revenue graph above, you can see the business peaked during COVID, and then they had a dip.
• They rode on the remote work trend, then fell off. But revenue is picking up again. So this IS the new normal.
• It was started as a side project, bootstrapped by a 2 person team.
• It is a 6 year old project - so NOT an overnight success by any means.
• They get most of their traffic from the Slack and MS teams apps marketplaces. As I’ve said before - go where money is already changing hands. (Read - Money making ideas for more marketplaces to consider building for)
• Their ARPU is $100, so with just 350 users they could reach $35K MRR. As we’ve discussed before, there’s way more value in selling to “higher ups”

Read more in this interview they did back in 2021 -

• Karma Bot on Get Latka

One last lesson -

I found this review on G2 which highlighted their value proposition beautifully -

Next time, you come up with a new idea, think about how you can get your users to give such reviews.

New Ideas Checklist -

Speaking of new ideas, I tried to come up with a checklist to evaulation new ideas. So every time a new idea pops up in my head, this is the list I’m going to run it by -

What do you think? What else would you add?

I tweeted about it and got some interesting responses 😅

Why you should NOT become an entrepreneur -

23 months ago I quit my corporate career to work for myself. And there hasn't been a dull day in my life since.

But I think entrepreneurship is over-glamorized and over-simplified.

It's not as easy as it's made out to be.

I wrote a quick thread about my experience so far.

Give it a read -

• Why you should NOT become an entrepreneur

More reflections you might like -

• My Failure to build a DTC e-com business
• My Failure to build a ghostwriting business
• Honest thoughts about audience building

Hope you find them useful. If you do, please share them in your network.

Simple Rules for a Company of One

If you’re an indie hacker or solopreneur, you HAVE to read the book “Company of One” by Paul Jarvis.

Loved this quote from the first chapter - “Start small, define growth, and keep learning”

We’re reading this book in the Indie Masterminds community book club. So if you want friends to discuss this book, come join us.

That's it for today folks. Hope you found this useful.

If you did, please share it with a friend. And do signup to receive more such posts every week in your inbox.

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Newsletter Recommendation - Creator Boom

John is one of the best curators I know.

Every week he curates the most interesting links and content around the creator economy and shares in his newsletter - Creator Boom. Make sure to sign up if you haven’t already.

• Creator Boom

🔗 Super Links

Useful links you don't want to miss -

• Want to start generating passive income? Learn how to do it for free.
• Loved Karthik’s approach to finding new startup ideas that work for YOU.
• Wacky Marketing Examples (Last week’s post)
• Learn how to make $10K from your first book as a creator.
• The most convenient way to build a fancy landing page for your project. (Sorry shared the wrong link for this last week)
• A brilliant way to use Google ads to get an investor’s attention. Mind = BLOWN! (Thanks Kyani from the Indie Masterminds community for sharing this gem)

(*Links in bold are classified ads, to reserve your spot, please send me a DM on Twitter.)

🤗 How can I help?

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you -

• Join the tiny community for your big dreams We support, inform, educate and inspire each other every day. We are a tight knit group of indie hackers and solopreneurs working on our projects. We would love to have you. Entrepreneurship is hard, don’t do it alone. Come join us!
• 💸 An info product can set you free, it can help you grow your audience and income. Learn the step by step framework to build and launch an info product in 14 days. Buy Now