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Startup Interview

How Sideby Built a 300-Person Waitlist for Zero-Setup Co-Browsing After Raising $200K (Interview with Product Designer Wilhelm Rahn)

Interview Date
July 20, 2021
Interviewee
Wilhelm RahnProduct Designer and Manager
Watch
Watch the full interview

Company Metrics at Interview Time

Total Funding Raised (2021)

$200K

Pricing Per Seat (2021)

$39 per month

Team Size (2021)

5

Historical Snapshot

These numbers were reported by Wilhelm Rahn during the interview recorded in July 2021 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Sideby’s current numbers.

Key Takeaways

  • 01Sideby was founded in April 2021 and focused on zero-setup co-browsing for SaaS companies.
  • 02The company raised $200K in funding in 2021 to fund runway through launch.
  • 03The team of five was based in Spain, where lower living costs stretched the $200K to roughly a year of runway.
  • 04Sideby had approximately 300 people on its waitlist as of the interview in July 2021.
  • 05The planned public launch out of beta was targeted for September 2021.
  • 06Pricing was set at $39 per seat per month, with the product free to early adopters until mid-September 2021 and 50% off for life to anyone who joined before then.
  • 07The team used Product Hunt, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Twitter as primary channels to build the waitlist.
  • 08Wilhelm Rahn was an employee, not a founder and without equity; the company had three founders, and the CEO was Diego.
  • 09The team co-built the product with select waitlist members to avoid building unused features.
  • 10Surfly was named as the primary competitor in the co-browsing space.

Company Metrics at Time of Interview

MetricValueSource
Total Funding Raised (2021)$200KInterview, Jul 2021
Pricing Per Seat (2021)$39 per monthInterview, Jul 2021
Team Size (2021)5Interview, Jul 2021
Year Founded2021Interview, Jul 2021
Early Adopter Discount (2021)50% off for lifeInterview, Jul 2021
Estimated Runway (2021)approximately 1 yearInterview, Jul 2021

Growth Breakdown

Revenue

Sideby was pre-revenue at the time of the interview, with no paying customers yet. The team planned to launch out of beta in September 2021 at $39 per seat per month, with early adopters offered a 50% lifetime discount.

Waitlist and Early Testers

The company had around 300 people on its waitlist as of July 2021, built through Product Hunt, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Twitter outreach. Sideby was pre-launch and pre-revenue, so none of them were paying customers; the team was co-building the product with select early waitlist members to validate features before launch.

Team

The team consisted of five people total: two developers, a CEO, a CMO, and Wilhelm Rahn as product designer and manager. Three of the five were founders; Wilhelm and one developer were employees.

Funding and Runway

Sideby raised $200K in 2021 to fund operations ahead of launch. With a small team based in Spain, where the cost of living was lower, Wilhelm said that left them comfortable enough to keep running for a year or so, though the plan was to be out of beta before that.

Growth Strategy

Product Hunt Community

Product Hunt was one of the first channels the team used to drive waitlist signups and generate early awareness among the SaaS and startup community.

Cold Outreach and Community Engagement

Wilhelm and the team sent unsolicited but value-focused DMs on Twitter, left comments, and engaged in communities on Reddit and LinkedIn to attract early interest without paid advertising.

Co-Building with Early Users

The team invited select waitlist members into the product development process to co-build features, ensuring they only shipped functionality that users would actually use and avoiding unnecessary complexity.

Targeting Customer Success Leaders

The team focused outreach on heads of customer experience and customer success, who they identified as the buyers most likely to understand the value of reducing support ticket resolution time through co-browsing.

Best Quotes

“Cobrowsing has been present for a couple of years now, but it was mostly big companies, big SaaS company, or financial institutions that were using it. We're trying to take it to every SaaS company out there so they can just do that. They just they actually solve and jump in and solve every every, you know, issue their customers are having at the time.”
“I would say around 300, and we are rapidly growing that thanks to our CMO, which is just trying to communicate every single day.”
“So the total team were five. We have two developers, one back, one front. We have our CEO, Diego,”
“I'm an employee. There are three founders, and one of the developers are also an employee.”
“We are just building a hot the the waiting list. There's a couple of people in the community that we want to nurture. We are working together with them to co build the product. And we are inviting them into the process to actually build something that will be used in a good way. We don't want to develop any feature that's not going to be used. We don't want to, we don't want any fluff. We want to go straight to what they need.”
“Out of beta, we are aiming for a September launch, but, you know, anything can change. So we are trying to release it when it's actually ready. We are just trying to make a solid product and I mean, we'll launch it when the right set of features can help the most people out there.”
“Our company raised a, first it was raising some, you know, has raised some capital, so we have a little bit of a runway to operate and focus on building products.”
“We want to remain competitive. We know that our customers, you know, they mostly work on a a seat based pricing. Right now, what we're offering our early adopters is to have it free until mid September. And if, you know, we are offering the 50% bountiful life to join before that period. The prices we are it's just 39 US dollars per month per ticket.”
“A lot of market research. We actually just straight up ask everybody what pricing that we're comfortable with, what we watch, what was the standard in the industry. And it's a price point that's good for us, we believe, will allow more SaaS companies to to access the product. We don't want to be out of range for the people we can actually help.”

What Happened Next

This interview captured Sideby at its earliest stage in July 2021, just months after founding, with a waitlist of around 300 people and a September 2021 launch target. The figures and plans described here are a point-in-time snapshot from that conversation and do not reflect the company's current status. Visit the Sideby company profile on GetLatka for the most up-to-date numbers and developments.

View Sideby’s current profile and metrics

Full Transcript

Chapters

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey folks, excited for this one. My guest this morning is Will Rahn. He is a product designer and manager hybrid who works with companies to take their digital products from good to great. On a mission to find ways to make customer service amazing for companies and wanna help companies 10x their support. He's an innovation seeker optimist, speaks many languages, and is now building sideby.io, zero setup co browsing for SaaS. Will, you ready to take to the

00:25top?

Wilhelm Rahn

00:26>> Let's go.

Nathan Latka

00:27There are so many times where I'm trying to help one of founder a founder I know use my tool Founderpath, and I'm going, man, if I could just, like, help them click that button or use this screen, I wish there was a way to do that. You're solving this problem. Tell us more.

What Co-Browsing Is and Why It Matters for SaaS

Wilhelm Rahn

00:40>> We're solving it. Basically, cobrowsing has been present for a couple of years now, but it was mostly big companies, big SaaS company, or financial institutions that were using it. We're trying to take it to every SaaS company out there so they can just do that. They just they actually solve and jump in and solve every every, you know, issue their customers are having at the time.

When Sideby Was Founded

Nathan Latka

01:08How when did you start, like, designing the first pixel or writing the first line of code?

Wilhelm Rahn

01:13>> Alright. This is very surprising, but we started back in April 2021. So you are we are just coming up.

Nathan Latka

01:22Wow. Okay. Yeah. So your your site right now is beautifully designed. You're building a waitlist. How many people right now are on the waitlist?

Building the Waitlist: Size and Growth

Wilhelm Rahn

01:29>> I would say around 300, and we are rapidly growing that thanks to our CMO, which is just trying to communicate every single day.

Nathan Latka

01:40Alright, let's dive into more of this. You mentioned a CMO, you're obviously doing product design, UI, UX. What's the rest of the team? How many of you guys are there?

Team Structure and Roles

Wilhelm Rahn

01:50>> Alright. So the total team were five. We have two developers, one back, one front. We have our CEO, Diego, our CMO, Richelm,

02:03>> And mean, we are very focused. We are basically coming out from another project that was also focused on customer success. We believe this is the next step into that direction.

Nathan Latka

02:16Did the five of you guys just split equity evenly?

Equity Split and Wilhelm's Role as Employee

Wilhelm Rahn

02:20>> No. I'm an employee. There are three founders, and one of the developers are also an employee.

Nathan Latka

02:28Okay. So did you do you have equity?

Wilhelm Rahn

02:31>> I don't have equity. Well, come on, man. Why are you discussions.

Nathan Latka

02:36I was gonna say, why are you working you're young, you're handsome, you can do whatever you want, you're talented. Why are you working on something where you don't have equity?

Wilhelm Rahn

02:43>> I believe a lot in the project. I believe there's a lot to be added to that. You know, Diego is a nice guy. He's open to to to discussions. We have something in mind in the future.

Tactics for Getting the First 100 Waitlist Signups

Nathan Latka

02:58Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Alright. So there's 300 on the waitlist you got going in 2021. I wanna understand how you're building the waitlist because people listening right now, everyone's wondering, how do we build a waitlist? So how did you get the first 100 people on the waitlist?

Wilhelm Rahn

03:10>> Alright. So we're basically focusing on building trust, joining community, and actually providing value to them. You know, everyone in the in the team does a different thing. I normally just jump into the Twitter, try to find ways into which I can, you know, add value to people. Love Let's just try let's

Nathan Latka

03:36try and be specific. So, like, add value, blah blah blah. This is like standard. Give me real tactics. Right? So where did you find the first 100 people specifically? What community?

Wilhelm Rahn

03:45>> Alright. So first of all, product hunt. We are also going

03:55>> on Reddit. We are building a lot of community on LinkedIn. Mhmm. And a lot of perhaps the the smaller companies that we're getting, but the most eager to try it, we are getting it from Twitter. That's a combination of things. You know? I just like to, you know, engage with everybody, leave comments, send DMs with unrequested advice, but, you know, trying to to actually solve an issue. If I see an issue or something that can be

04:27>> proved on any website, I just jump ahead.

Nathan Latka

04:30So so when you Is that is that free tip?

04:34When you say you're building community, I guess I don't understand what that means. Do you run a big Slack channel with these folks, or is there a where do you guys hang out?

Co-Building the Product with Early Users

Wilhelm Rahn

04:43>> Alright. So at the moment, we are just building a hot the the waiting list. There's a couple of

04:54>> people in the community that we want to nurture. We are working together with them to co build the product. And we are inviting them into the process to actually build something that will be used in a good way. We don't want to develop any feature that's not going to be used. We don't want to, we don't want any fluff. We want to go straight to what they need.

Nathan Latka

05:18How do you incentivize these? Or I mean, there's a lot of people listening around trying to build their MVP. They'd love to actually get real customers on a Zoom call to show them design prototypes and get their feedback, but it's hard to figure out a way to actually get those people that could be interested in your tool, get on a call with you to give you that feedback. How are you doing this?

Wilhelm Rahn

05:35>> Alright. So surprisingly, we're having a, you know, not an easy time, but we are finding that people are really eager to try or at least hear about Sideby. We have a couple of surprisingly big SaaS companies that wanted to to join in the early stages.

Nathan Latka

05:52And what we Tell well, tell me the real story of one m. Name one of those companies.

Wilhelm Rahn

05:57>> Alright. So we're working in the early stages with Dixa. We we are going to be testing to them. They are a bit of a intercom acquire competitor. No. I They are I

Nathan Latka

06:17know Dixa well, so let's keep going down the funnel here. So who at Dixa knows about you guys? Who are you working with? Who are you

Wilhelm Rahn

06:23>> showing early mock ups to? Alright. So we are past the mock up stage. We are

06:34>> having this conversation with Hugh.

06:38>> He is the chief customer experience evangelist.

Nathan Latka

06:42Is that who you think you're gonna be selling to mostly, the head of customer experience, customer success?

Wilhelm Rahn

06:47>> Yes. They are the ones that really get the value of a product. They are the one that understand that, you know, cutting 60% of time on support tickets will really make a difference, lets you improve the customer satisfaction quite a bit.

Nathan Latka

07:03And how do you think that this will really take off? So, like, if I'm head of customer experience at Dixa, if I'm have a customer live chatting on my page that I can't help via text, I'm probably just inviting them to a Zoom call, and they're sharing their screen, and I'm telling them where to click and how to solve their issue. You obviously wanna replace that and say, just use, like, cobrowsing. Why is cobrowsing a better

07:22way to do customer success and support versus just getting on

Wilhelm Rahn

07:25>> a Zoom call with the person? Alright. The main thing is that we are allowing the agents to jump in, click on the stuff, and do the process. That's why, you know, either while chatting or while having a, you know, a video call. So we are not completely replacing, at the moment, any video calls. So if our customers are using screen sharing to to video call with anybody, they can also use a browsing to finish processes quickly.

Nathan Latka

07:57So you think what's gonna happen is this if if a support ticket gets escalated and they have to jump on a Zoom call, they might then use Sideby on the Zoom call so that like, if you're the customer and I am the person giving you support, I could you could share your screen and then I could actually control your screen myself on the Zoom call.

Wilhelm Rahn

08:14>> That is correct. In the case of Dixa, there's no Zoom needed because they do offer, you know, pretty well straight on the website. So we are trying to complement that for the moment, so that's why we are trying to

08:31>> do something that these big players are not doing at the moment. And we want them to use Sideby to actually do that, something that we're not doing before.

08:43>> In respect to having those video calls during cobrowsing, that's something we're working on to make it a native part of Sideby in the near future.

Nathan Latka

08:53When are you launching for, like, out of beta?

Beta Launch Timeline and Product Readiness

Wilhelm Rahn

08:57>> Out of beta, we are aiming for a September launch, but, you know, anything can change. So we are trying to release it when it's actually ready. We are just trying to make a solid product and I mean, we'll launch it when the right set of features can help the most people out there.

Nathan Latka

09:21Well, sure. But you could then be in beta for years. That doesn't work because you can't live for free. So how are you guys all paying yourselves pre revenue?

Wilhelm Rahn

09:29>> Alright, so

Funding: $200K Raised and Runway

Wilhelm Rahn

09:31>> our company raised a, first it was raising some, you know, has raised some capital, so we have a little bit of a runway to operate and focus on building products.

Nathan Latka

09:41How much did you guys raise?

Wilhelm Rahn

09:43>> Around 200 k.

Nathan Latka

09:44Got it. So how much runway does that give you?

Wilhelm Rahn

09:49>> Possibly, you know, we have a we're small team. We are based on in Spain, so the the cost of living here is not as high. So we, you know, we are in the in the comfortable spot that we could be running for a year or so, but that's not really the plan. We plan to release and get out of beta this year. You know, we don't want to extend it a lot more than that.

Nathan Latka

10:14Out of curiosity, when you guys raised the $200,000, obviously, you're pre revenue, pre product, but it sounds like really great team. What valuation are you guys able to raise out with just your team?

Wilhelm Rahn

10:24>> That's something that our CEO knows. I cannot tell you.

Pricing Strategy: $39 Per Seat Per Month

Nathan Latka

10:29Do you know?

Wilhelm Rahn

10:31>> I have a rough idea. I don't have the number in front. I have a document here with the things that I want to remember during the interview, but that exact number, I don't have it.

Nathan Latka

10:41Okay. Got it. So you guys raised $200,000 of free revenue. You're hoping to launch in September. Pricing is critical. What price point do you think you want with?

Wilhelm Rahn

10:50>> Good question. So we want to remain competitive. We know that our customers, you know, they mostly work on a a seat based pricing. Right now, what we're offering our early adopters is to have it free until mid September. And if, you know, we are offering the 50% bountiful life to join before that period. The prices we are it's just 39 US dollars per month per ticket.

Nathan Latka

11:23Per month per seat. So if they join today, they can get it for 20 per month per seat?

Wilhelm Rahn

11:28>> That's correct. Interesting.

Nathan Latka

11:29Okay. How'd you come up with that price point?

Wilhelm Rahn

11:33>> A lot of market research. We actually just straight up ask everybody what pricing that we're comfortable with, what we watch, what was the standard in the industry. And it's a price point that's good for us, we believe, will allow more SaaS companies to to access the product. We don't want to be out of range for the people we can actually help.

Competition: Surfly and the Co-Browsing Market

Nathan Latka

11:55Who are you competing with right now?

11:58What who are the big who are the people doing the best cobrowsing right now?

Wilhelm Rahn

12:02>> There's a couple of I would say the the best people in the industry would be Surfly. Definitely.

Nathan Latka

12:12Say it again?

Wilhelm Rahn

12:13>> Surfly. Surflink? No. Surfly. S u r f l y.

12:18>> L a y. Surflay.

Nathan Latka

12:19Interesting. Okay. How big are they?

Wilhelm Rahn

12:23>> They are huge. They are pretty much the main player in the industry.

Nathan Latka

12:29How much revenue do have?

Wilhelm Rahn

12:32>> I don't have the number right now.

Nathan Latka

12:33Or you say they're huge. How do you know they're huge? What are you basing that off of?

Wilhelm Rahn

12:37>> Alright. So one of our tactics to see how the competitors are, you know, are operating and where they are operating. You know, it might sound simple, but we were just using common tools like to know which websites they were

12:56>> working on. So you can just you can just know how many installs a SaaS company have on their homepage because they crawl the web, so you can see that they

Nathan Latka

13:08So how many installs does that currently have?

Wilhelm Rahn

13:12>> I don't have number here. Sorry. No. It's big. Let me see. I I didn't know that I was going to be asked this question. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I will be

Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions

Nathan Latka

13:24No, it's okay. Just know that they're big. I understand. Cool. So look, you launched with pricing in September. You're building your waitlist right now using Product Hunt, Reddit, and Twitter. We'll see how launch goes. You have to come back on in six months, give us an update, Wilhelm. But in the meantime, let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book?

Wilhelm Rahn

13:42>> My favorite book? Probably a book by Seth Godin. Number two,

Nathan Latka

13:50is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Wilhelm Rahn

13:53>> Nathan from Almanac.

Nathan Latka

13:57Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building a business?

Wilhelm Rahn

14:02>> For building a business?

14:05>> I would say LinkedIn. I know it's almost weird.

Nathan Latka

14:09You're a product designer. What's what's the tool you use for, like, product design, UI, UX, etcetera?

Wilhelm Rahn

14:13>> Oh, right. So my main tool will be Figma. Definitely.

14:17>> Figma? Figma. K.

Nathan Latka

14:18Number four. How many hours of sleep do get every night?

Wilhelm Rahn

14:24>> Lately around six or seven.

Nathan Latka

14:26And what's your situation, Wilhelm? Married? Single kids?

Wilhelm Rahn

14:30>> Engaged.

Nathan Latka

14:31Congratulations. How old are you?

Wilhelm Rahn

14:34>> 35.

14:35>> 35. Last question.

Nathan Latka

14:36What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?

Wilhelm Rahn

14:40>> I

14:43>> really wish I knew how to manage my time better when I was younger.

Wrap-Up and What to Watch at Sideby

Nathan Latka

14:49Guys, there you have it. Sideby, a good cobrowsing experience. They launched this year, 2021. They're building their waitlist right now, 300 people on it. They're launching in September. They raised $200,000 in revenue, hoping that or sorry, and and funding, hoping that can get them to launch. They're gonna launch the $39 a month price point. If you get in now on the waitlist, it's half price. We'll see what happens at sideby.io. Wilhelm, thanks for taking us to

15:10the top.

Wilhelm Rahn

15:11>> Thank you very much, Nathan.

Nathan Latka

15:13One 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

15:39Central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. We release them here on YouTube every day at 2PM Central. To make sure you don't miss any of that, make sure you click the subscribe button below here on YouTube, the big red button and then click the little bell notification to make sure you get notifications when we do go live. I wouldn't want you to miss breaking news in the SaaS world, whether it's an acquisition, a big

16:01fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement or something else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you wanna take this conversation deeper and further, we have by far the largest private Slack community for B2B SaaS founders. You want to get in there. We've probably talked about your tool if you're running a company or your firm if you're investing. You can go in there and quickly search and see what people are saying. Sign up

16:23for that at nathanlatka.com/slack. In the meantime, I'm hanging out with you here on YouTube. I'll be in the comments for the next thirty minutes. Feel free to let me know what you thought about this episode. And if you enjoyed it, click the thumbs up. We get a lot of haters that are mad at how aggressive I am on these shows, but I do it so that we can all learn. We have to counter those people. We

16:42gotta push them away. Click the thumbs up below to counter them and know that I appreciate your guys'support. Alright, I'll be in the comments. See you.