Whatās your ultimate vision with Umso?
We all use lots of digital products every day and donāt think much about it. However, sometimes youāll come across something that surprises you in some way or another. Youāll think something like āwow this is amazing, I canāt wait to use thisā. It might be much faster, more beautiful, more usable, or cheaper than anything else youāve tried before.Ā
My vision is to build that product for people who are starting a new business or running a small company and need a website. We try to build something thatās extremely high quality and solves a real problem while at the same time also inspiring people with some pleasant surprises.
What do you get about this space that your competitors donāt get?
Websites in general can be very complex and if you want to build a complex website, the tool needed to build that website will be at least as complex, if not much more.
We make a point by purposefully limiting the kind of website you can build with Umso: a static marketing website for digital product companies.Ā
By focusing on a specific audience with a well-defined goal, we can avoid a lot of complexity and provide a straightforward experience. To make things even simpler, we also limit what your website can look like. Most people just want a good-looking website that follows current trends, loads fast and is easy to use.Ā
As a result, we have a product thatās great for a very specific kind of person and at best average for everyone else. The market is big enough for us to be very successful by serving only that niche.Ā
Whatās the most important lesson youāve learned since starting Umso?
Having employees is key. When starting out I was inspired by solo founders whoāve made it big. This gave me lots of courage and helped me get started. However, I kind of got stuck on the idea of having to do everything myself.
Despite its simplicity, the product still causes a significant number of customer support requests. Umso is also an always-online product where an hour of downtime would have far-reaching consequences. Trying to shoulder that responsibility alone wasnāt great for my mental health.
How that Umso is a team of three and still expanding, I donāt only get to share the responsibility but also the success, the milestones and the happy moments. This shared experience is more satisfying than any MRR growth.Ā
What have your last six months looked like and what do your next six months look like for growing this company?Ā
Over the last six months weāve been entirely focused on our internal systems and have done almost nothing for growth. Now weāre at a great turning point because we are done with the overhaul and can focus on other areas again.Ā
Our greatest weakness as a company is definitely marketing. So far weāve grown entirely through word of mouth which has been great but we could probably do a lot better. First and foremost weāre a product company so we tend to view growth through the product lense.Ā
Over the next six months weāre launching some new key features and will experiment with some creative marketing strategies. One thing we purposefully avoid is running paid ads with the tech giants and I hope we can keep it that way.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started your company?
This might be a bit silly but if I could pass a note to my past self itād just say that things are going to work out. The most stressful time was probably the year from $100-3,000 MRR. You want to do your best work but youāre not sure if itāll still be good for anything one year down the road.
At the same time I was wondering if I should go full-time or not, which I finally did at $1k MRR. I had some savings at the time which would cover me for about half a year. That was definitely risky and I wouldnāt necessarily recommend it. On the other hand, working a full-time job while creating a business on the side isnāt easy either.Ā
If I had to start over, Iād try to get to $5k MRR as quickly as possible to get out of that questionable zone.