How Arvid Kahl built FeedbackPanda to $55,000 MRR in a niche market, wrote his book "Zero to Sold" and lessons from his journey

Intellectual Software

Arvid Kahl built his SaaS business FeedbackPanda from $0 to $55,000 MRR in 2 years, without any outside funding or marketing spend. After selling it in 2019, he started sharing his lessons on Twitter and his blog (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com) which later turned into his book "Zero to Sold". He also runs a newsletter and podcast where he shares his lessons in business and things he's learned along the way. Zero to Sold is an amazing book with decades of lessons condensed into 500 pages. I loved it so much I immediately wanted to bring Arvid on the show and pick his brain. Thankfully, he agreed :)

SHOW NOTES

01:35 - Introduction

04:14 - How studying politics and philosophy helped Arvid understand complex human behaviors in coding

06:46 - You cannot prove things right. You can only prove them wrong

08:10 - Describing Feedbackpanda and the early days of validating the idea

16:25 - Finding good problems to solve

18:00 - When people use Excel sheets, it's an opportunity for a SaaS business

21:55 - How Feedbackpanda got its first users from a single comment in a Facebook Group

23:05 - Prioritizing features for your SaaS product

26:31 - Why Indiehackers should focus on niche SaaS markets

32:55 - A local marketplace idea that failed because Arvid did not understand the workflow of his customers.

37:08 - How to ask the right questions and The Mom Test.

40:47 - Being part of niche communities is a basic requirement of understanding your customers

43:23 - Growing Twitter community from 400 to 8k followers in 11 months.

45:38 - Selling 2500+ copies of Zero to Sold and creating building products with your audience.

48:14 - How the Indiehacker community is uniquely helpful to upcoming entrepreneurs.

50:19 - Why Arvid started a newsletter for Feedbackpanda sharing stories of his customers.

55:26 - How writing a blog paved the path for Zero to Sold

01:01:02 - Why 30-day free trials are better than 7-day free trials

01:04:55 - Arvid's favorite books

01:07:30 - Places to connect to Arvid

For weekly updates on podcast episodes, subscribe to the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com/)

Arvid's Blog (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/)

Arvid's Twitter (https://twitter.com/arvidkahl)

Arvid's Book (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/zero-to-sold/)

Arvid's newsletter (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter/)

Arvid's Podcast (https://bootstrapped-founder.transistor.fm/episodes)

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