How Potion Reached $700 MRR and 79 Customers Four Months After Launch (Interview with Noah Bragg)

Introduction and Coffee Pass Background

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Noah Bragg. He started his entrepreneur journey creating multiple projects in college. And then after college, started his first real startup called Coffee Pass with his roommate. It was an app like the Starbucks app, but for local coffee shops. After working at that startup for two years, was acquired. Now, Noah is indie hacking building businesses at a similar scale and can at least work for him and his family. Potion.so is

00:21his current focus. It's a website builder built on top of Notion. Alright, Noah, you're ready to take us to the top?

Noah Bragg

00:26>> Let's do it.

Nathan Latka

00:27Hey. Touch on Coffee Pass for a second. How many so did was this revenue generating at any point?

Noah Bragg

00:33>> Yeah. So it it wasn't a ton and that was kind of one of the problems with the business. We had around 25 coffee shops that were using it, but we were probably only doing, like, $300 a month in our own profit. A lot of the money, you know, was going to the coffee shops, and that was, you know, the revenue for them. So it wasn't making a ton of money, and that was one of the problems

00:55>> we saw with the the business.

What Potion Does

Nathan Latka

00:57Interesting. Okay. So let's let's jump into Potion now. So, I mean, should we think about this like Weebly or Wix or Squarespace but for Notion?

Noah Bragg

01:05>> Yeah. Basically, I mean, it's it's a website builder. You can build really, you know, tons of different kinds of websites with it, but, yeah, it's built on top of Notion. So you kind of use Notion to put in your content, kinda create your basic layout. And then with Potion, you can add some extra custom, like, styles and design on top of it, and it hosts it for you. So, yeah, it's it's a it's a pretty cool

01:26>> kinda website builder I'm having fun creating.

Pricing Plans

Nathan Latka

01:29What are companies paying you on? Are people you know, builders creating on average per month to use the tech?

Noah Bragg

01:34>> Yeah. So, I have, $8 a month for one site, 16 for three sites, and 24, for eight sites. Those are the different plans.

Nathan Latka

01:45Averages. Eight or 16?

Noah Bragg

01:48>> Usually, you know, the probably 85% of people are just doing one site. I think my average revenue per customer is around $9. So that that's it just ticks up a little bit.

Growth Tactics: Twitter and Facebook Group

Nathan Latka

01:59Yep. I wanna talk about how you've grown this. So big in terms of getting new users on a platform over the last twelve months, what was sort of the biggest tactic tactic you did?

Noah Bragg

02:09>> Yeah. So mostly what I've been doing is just building in public on Twitter. I'd say probably about 85% of my customers have have come from that. And then the other percentage have been either word-of-mouth or this Facebook group called a Notion Facebook group with 30,000 people in it.

Nathan Latka

02:27What's the name of that of that group?

Noah Bragg

02:29>> Notion Made Simple.

Nathan Latka

02:31Did you build the group?

Noah Bragg

02:33>> I did not. No. It's it's a Notion group that's already been there, and I've kinda been sharing some things there along the way, and that's where I got some customers.

Nathan Latka

02:41That's smart. Now when did you launch this?

Noah Bragg

02:44>> About four ish months ago.

Nathan Latka

02:46Okay. So all in 2021?

Noah Bragg

02:49>> Yeah. I I started working on it at the end of twenty twenty, like, November. But then I launched it, like, private early access in January and then actually launched early access in February. And then, like, a month later, kinda opened it up to to everybody. So, yeah, it's been around four months.

Product Hunt Launch Results

Nathan Latka

03:06Mhmm. So the Facebook group is one way you did this. You also had a very successful product launch on May 24. You got over a thousand upvotes. How much traffic did you get from this ranking?

Noah Bragg

03:16>> Yeah. So I got 2.8 k on the first day. And then yesterday, I got another 1.5 k. And about half of those were from Product Hunt. The other half kind of from the buzz going around on Twitter. But, yeah, the the Product Hunt launch went pretty well, I was pretty stoked with that and seen a lot of sign ups come in. So that's been good.

Nathan Latka

03:40Sorry. Is that 2,800 visits or sign ups?

Noah Bragg

03:43>> Visits. Yep. Those are visits.

Trial Conversion Rate and Onboarding

Nathan Latka

03:44And then you said 50% of those convert to paid?

Noah Bragg

03:48>> Yeah. So so people that actually sign up, with a credit card upfront trial, right now, my number's around 50% of those end up becoming paid customers. We'll see how Product Hunt, you know, customers is different with that or not. But yeah.

Nathan Latka

04:01How many how many trial sign ups did you get from Product Hunt? Do you know yet?

Noah Bragg

04:06>> Yeah. So let's see. I'm I'm looking at the numbers right This

Nathan Latka

04:09is just two days just so everyone knows, this is just two days ago.

Noah Bragg

04:12>> Right. So, yeah, day of, I got 39 sign ups with credit card upfront and yesterday, so the day after, 26.

Nathan Latka

04:22Okay. So so not horrible. I mean, that's that's that's pretty darn good. That's what is that? 60 about 60 sign ups. Now the question is, can you get more than 50% on the convert?

Noah Bragg

04:31>> Yep. That's the question.

Nathan Latka

04:32Yeah. Interesting. What sorts of things are you doing on the onboarding to try and increase conversion rates to the full time paid?

Noah Bragg

04:38>> Yeah. So and this was actually some of the stuff I was just working on before the launch because I knew that would be a, you know, important thing. I don't wanna lose people in the leaky bucket. So I made, like, a a video that's the first thing you see, just a two minute video that really, like, easily walks you through the steps and is trying to push people to see the value of, okay, this is what

04:57>> your site could look like. Because that's really the big moment. Right? Is once people have created a website, then they're they kinda see the value and hopefully they're locked in. And so I'm trying to push people to that point. I also created like a six day, like email kind of drip, that kind of keeps sharing like some some tips or some guides or showing some other websites created with Potion to kind of show them the value

05:21>> of it to kind of keep them going. And then also I added some, emails based on like events. So like when they do something in the app, it might have a unique kind of email send to kind of like maybe help them if they're stuck in an area or something like that. So, yeah, those are the things that I'm kinda doing to kinda push that onboarding process so that, you know, hopefully, people created their site before

05:42>> their seven day trial ends and they see the value.

Current Customer and Revenue Numbers

Nathan Latka

05:46Interesting. And how many you know, our Product Hunt product is just one way you've gotten customers. How many total people are paying today?

Noah Bragg

05:52>> Yeah. So I have right now 79 paid subscribers. And so that that's obviously all before product hunt and have around almost that number of people that are on the trial currently.

Nathan Latka

06:07Yeah. So if you can convert it, obviously, chunk of them, your revenue is gonna grow quick here. But assuming none of them convert, you're still about, what, $800 your first $800 in MRR. Right?

Noah Bragg

06:15>> Yeah. I'm I'm right at $700 MRR.

Nathan Latka

06:19Yeah. This is great. So, yeah, again, depending on how many these you convert, maybe double your revenue here from product. And you could you know, it's harder to say you double your revenue once you have, a million or 2 or 3,000,000 revenue. But

Noah Bragg

06:28>> Yeah. It won't Sure. By this at this stage.

Working Full Time and Fundraising Plans

Nathan Latka

06:32So this is great. So questions. I mean, where are you in life? Are you working on this full time?

Noah Bragg

06:36>> I'm not. I have a a full time job right now.

Nathan Latka

06:39Okay. So, like, what has to happen at Potion for you to go, oh my gosh. I just can't go to my full time gig anymore. I've gotta keep building this.

Noah Bragg

06:46>> I mean, that's I mean, that's the plan already. Like, that's what I wanna do. I guess, really, it's it's a matter of timing as well as I think I would raise, like, a little bit of capital from kind of like a bootstrapper friendly kind of investor to kind of help me kind of in that stage between, you know, potion creating enough money for me to live on as and and kinda getting to that point. So, yeah,

07:14>> I'd like to do that in the next, I don't know, four or five months, basically.

Nathan Latka

07:18How much would you look to raise?

Noah Bragg

07:21>> Somewhere around, like, 120 to 150 k. Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

07:25And you definitely wanna go down you you know, that's you're gonna give a ten, fifteen, maybe 20% of the business and then really be on that VC track. Is that something you'd go don't know where you look at some of these alternative financing options.

Noah Bragg

07:35>> Yeah. So I don't wanna go on the VC track. I'm more interested investors like TinySeed or Earnest Capital, things like that. Mhmm.

Nathan Latka

07:44Yep. And and same thing there though, you're still, you know, on both those models, you're giving up 11% of the equity. Now you can buy it back over time. Right?

Noah Bragg

07:51>> Right.

Nathan Latka

07:52In you know, at a certain rate. But are you I guess you're not opposed to really giving up equity to make that happen.

Noah Bragg

07:58>> Yeah. No. I'm not too opposed to that. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

08:00And why do you need that much capital to be able to pull the trigger and jump into this full time? I mean, are you able to I imagine you're able to keep your personal expenses pretty low so you have enough runway.

Noah Bragg

08:09>> Yeah. I do. I mean, it's it's a matter of the kind of company I wanna build isn't you know, I'm not trying to build the next unicorn or anything like that. And so I wanna, you know, I wanna build like a calm kind of, business that I can enjoy that, you know, works at least for me, hopefully a small team at some point. And, I think just, you know, kind of taking it slow a little bit,

08:30>> makes sense. Some some of the other reason is I actually have some stock options with my current company that come about October. So I'm also kinda waiting for that.

Nathan Latka

08:41That October cliff. Alright. Cool. Alright. Let's keep going down the the thing here. So you're you're working on product conversion. Right? We already heard about that. We we've talked about some of your early launch strategies. It's just you right now. Correct?

Noah Bragg

08:54>> Right.

Nathan Latka

08:55And you own a 100% of business?

Noah Bragg

08:57>> Yep.

Next Growth Channels: Creators, Affiliates and SEO

Nathan Latka

08:58That's great. I mean, what's the plan? How do you go from, you know, a 100 customers to 500 customers?

Noah Bragg

09:05>> Yeah. So, I mean, obviously, Twitter has been my kinda main place, and I'll keep to kinda build in public and do that there. Hopefully like, I've definitely seen some word-of-mouth kinda happen on Twitter from that kind of stuff. So I'll keep that, but I definitely want some more, you know, channels to grow. So one of the things I've been starting to look at is, like, affiliate marketing, partnering with other, like, Notion creators. There's quite a few

09:28>> of you know, few people in the Notion space that have, you know, decent sized audiences. So if I can partner with them in some ways, I think that can be a really good way to get new people seeing what I'm up to.

09:40>> Probably do some SEO at some point. Kinda do some more on that front.

09:45>> And yeah. I mean, those those are some of my kinda early things. I might try to partner with, like, that that Facebook Facebook group I mentioned that has, like, 30,000 people in that. So if there's, you know, good ways that I can kinda partner with them, maybe sponsor them.

10:01>> But, yeah, still a lot to do to kinda figure out in the marketing. And, yeah, hopefully, really just build the the word-of-mouth. I think that can be a a big thing. And so really just making my product really, really good, I think, can be kind of the driver for a lot of that. So, yeah, there's still lots of things I can do on the product.

Building the Product Solo

Nathan Latka

10:18And did you develop the product yourself? Or, like, are you a developer?

Noah Bragg

10:22>> I did. Yep.

Nathan Latka

10:23That's right. And the design?

Noah Bragg

10:25>> Yep.

Nathan Latka

10:26You you did this animation of this lady, like, painting the website on the homepage?

Noah Bragg

10:30>> Okay. No. That was, like, a, I don't know, a $100, like, image kit that I bought.

Nathan Latka

10:34I love that.

Future Product Roadmap

Nathan Latka

10:35I love getting these stories of, like, how we make this stuff, how the MVP gets up the door. You know? Right. Very cool. This is great. What about additional features you might be adding on in the next twelve to twenty four months?

Noah Bragg

10:47>> Yeah. So it's it's cool because there's a I mean, there's a lot of directions you could go with a website builder. You know, there's so many different kind of websites that people wanna build. And so mostly my niche has been, you know, solo entrepreneurs, founders, like kind of like creating a little business or or portfolio kind of websites. And so one of the things I'm looking to do here pretty soon is make it really easy for

11:09>> people to add and take payments on their website so they can sell like digital products and things like that. So that's kind of one of the areas I'm looking into and gonna do soon. And then one of the areas I've really looked a lot into is kind of actually going up market to companies with like API docs and help docs. Because there's some companies that already kind of do this on Notion. They'll kind of create like

11:32>> documentation, things like that, that's public. And so kind of creating tools that make sense for them to do that and and work well with a team. There's definitely some, I think, growth and area there. And then, you know, the coolest part of that is I could go up market a little bit and sell it to some bigger companies. Mhmm.

Famous Five

Nathan Latka

11:49Hey. It all sounds like a great plan. It'll be fun to watch you execute. In the meantime, Noah, let's wrap up here with Famous Five. Number one, what's your favorite book?

Noah Bragg

11:57>> Oh, right now, I'd say Atomic Habits.

Nathan Latka

12:00Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Noah Bragg

12:07>> Sorry. Not not really. I I follow lots of other indie hackers and and kinda bootstrappers. Favorite indie hacker? Kenneth Cassel.

Nathan Latka

12:16What's he building?

Noah Bragg

12:18>> He's building slip dot so.

Nathan Latka

12:20Very cool. Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building a business?

Noah Bragg

12:25>> Stripe.

Nathan Latka

12:26And number four, how many hours of sleep do get every night?

Noah Bragg

12:31>> It's been a lot less this week with the Product Hunt launch, but, yeah, I mean, typically eight hours eight hours a night.

Nathan Latka

12:36And situation, married single kiddos?

Noah Bragg

12:39>> Yeah. I'm married and have two kids.

Nathan Latka

12:41Married with two kids. Okay. And how old are you?

Noah Bragg

12:44>> I'm 26.

12:45>> 26.

Nathan Latka

12:46Last question. What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?

Noah Bragg

12:53>> I guess I wish I I knew just how much opportunity there is to kind of kinda go and do your own thing.

13:01>> Yep.

Nathan Latka

13:02Guys, what's going Yeah.

Noah Bragg

13:03>> What's crazy once you see, like, just how much you can do kind of being an entrepreneur and stuff and and seeing all the possibilities instead of just being on, like, the the college track.

Nathan Latka

13:14Guys, Noah Bragg, Potion.so, build your website quickly in a no code way right on top of Notion. He got his first customers by hustling on his Twitter account, then did a product launch last week, added about 79 new trials, hoping about 50% convert to paid. Currently, 80 people paying about $10 a month, about 700, $800 a month in revenue. And he's hoping to scale this and ideally get to a point where he can leave his

13:35full time gig and build this full time. Noah, thanks for taking us to the top.

Noah Bragg

13:39>> Yeah. Thank you, Nathan.

Nathan Latka

13:41One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers, they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU, CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it. And the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday, 1PM

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