Startup #1 - Typeshare

date

Apr 26, 2021

slug

typeshare

status

Published

tags

12IN12

summary

Last week I launched the first startup of 12. Typeshare is a simple way for writers to share beautiful images of their writing.

type

Post

Last Thursday I launched Typeshare. The first startup of 12. Typeshare makes it easy for writers to create beautiful, shareable images of their writing.

This product was born out of my frustration of sharing my writing on social media. I found myself taking screenshots of my notes app then trying to crop it and it always looked like garbage. When I first noticed this frustration I started to see lots of creators sharing similar images of their writing, and they were always hard to read.

Typeshare launched publicly last Thursday (April 22, 2021). My plan for the day was to launch on Product Hunt and I didn't have much else planned. On Wednesday, I made some nice graphics and scheduled the Product Hunt post for 12:01 AM PST (3 AM my time).

When I woke up, it quickly became apparent that Typeshare on Product Hunt wasn't going to do well. For some reason, it never appeared on the front page. This was discouraging but I needed to find other ways to launch because relying on Product Hunt alone was a recipe for failure. In total, Product Hunt gave me 17 users.

I turned to Twitter and shared what I was working on and tagged influential writers in my tweets. The result - 213 users from Twitter. Plus - I gained a bunch of new followers.

Twitter was the clear winner yesterday. I think this is because I was able to interact directly with the community who valued this product - writers. Whereas on Product Hunt, you can't directly target writers.

I also launched on IndieHackers and Hacker News. Combined, I gained ~200 users from those platforms.

In total, over 500 people have visited Typeshare.

Takeaways:

#1: Find where your audience hangs out.

#2: Leverage influential people in your market.

#3: Build in public.

This week

Goal: First paying customer

I've spent around two weeks developing Typeshare and now that it's launched, it's time to start marketing. I have big plans in my head for what Typeshare could become, but I need to stay focused on the goal of the week. Typeshare's first paying customer.