Software Product Updates Tool (Raised USD 1.8 Mn)
Recently, Launchnotes.io raised a $1.8 million seed round co-led by Cowboy Ventures and Bull City Ventures. LaunchNotes essentially helps businesses communicate their software updates to both internal and external customers.
Here is some coverage about their funding round: TechCrunch, Crunchbase & Pulse2.0.
In this edition of “Make this startup happen”, we will discuss how you can start this business and possibly grow it into a revenue generating entity.
For obvious reasons, I’ll not be covering topics around building/developing the product and neither will I be getting into product focussed growth strategies which are better formulated once you have some usage data.
Who is Competition?
ReleaseNotes.io: Started last year, likely operating in stealth mode.
Changelogfy: Started in 2018 and based out of Sao Paulo, Brazil. No funding information.
Headway: No relevant information available.
Noticeable: No relevant information available.
AnnounceKit: Started in 2018, they have self reported $900 in monthly revenue (not verified).
Onset.io: No relevant information available.
LaunchNotes: Created by ex-Atlassian employees, they raised 1.8 million in seed funding.
Opportunities Overview:
Lack of digital presence.
Most of them haven’t raised external money.
Prominent players mostly catering to enterprise clients.
Step 1: Ideal Domain name
Given the competition I believe AnnounceKit, LaunchNotes and ReleaseNotes have recognisable domains that are easy to recall but they are not .com (not a big difference).
Only Beamer and Changelogfy have .com domains, but beamer has the prefix “Get” in their domain. “Changelogfy” is not very intuitive to pronounce and can be easily misspelled.
So what can you do?
Get a short and recognisable .com domain. Here are some of them that you can pick up for around $10 to $13.
announceok(dot)com
launchbits(dot)com
launchmake(dot)com
launchsend(dot)com
launchword(dot)com
releasebit(dot)com
releasebro(dot)com
releasedev(dot)com
releasefox(dot)com
releaseout(dot)com
updateback(dot)com
updatebug(dot)com
updatecamp(dot)com
updatechef(dot)com
updatedrop(dot)com
updateloft(dot)com
updatemake(dot)com
updatepad(dot)com
Since this newsletter goes to 2914 people, chances are these domains might be gone before you see this. So, here is a list of 100 available domains names: Download
You can buy one of these domains for $10. I chose to ignore all premium domains that sell for $100 or more because I do not think it is a necessity at this point.
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Step 2: Crack the SEO game
To start things off, you’ll need keywords. Here are the top ones for this product that I found:
product roadmapping
release notes
change management software
free roadmap tool
project tracker software
release notes example
roadmap software
roadmap tool
release notes template
release notes example
Put all your SEO efforts around these keywords which includes everything from including them in your H1’s to creating content for your blog. These keywords can also be used for Google Adwords in case you want to be more aggressive about user acquisition.
You can download a list of 96 keywords (including the ones mentioned earlier) along with some stats to get you started on your SEO game: Download keyword list
Step 3: Pricing Strategies
Keep it as simple as possible and try to get small businesses/startups on lifetime contracts with limited features. First and foremost, this will keep up sell opportunities open + it will give you a launchpad on platforms like Pitchground, Secret & Appsumo.
The good deal range would be 2X features/output on your closest competitor’s free plan for a lifetime price. In this case LaunchNotes offers this on their free/basic plan, so 2X it.
Step 4: Referral/Affiliate Partnerships
Products like this grow faster with recommendations and good word of mouth. But again, it is important to choose your audience/referral partner carefully.
With that said, there are a few content domains that are worth looking into:
Product management blogs, newsletters and communities
Product management Slack groups
Product management podcasts
You can also collaborate and team up with influencer accounts on Twitter (listed below). Even though some of these accounts do not have a lot of followers, most of them hold a good amount of influence in the community.
Thomas Kennedy - @ThePMCoach
Bernardo Tirado - @the PMObox
GrandmasterPM - @GrandmasterPM
Karen Lopex - @datachick
Elizabeth Glau - @elizabethglau
Project Management - @ProManagement24
Somma Bhattacharya - @Soma_b
APM - @APMProjectMgmt
Scott Ostby - @ScottOstby
Michael Sliwinski - @MSliwinski
Michael Kaplan - @mkaplanPMP
John Ikeda - @LeadWithHonor
Pmtips.net - @pmtips
Agile Times - @agiletimes
APMG - @APMG_Inter
AXELOS - @AXELOS_GBP
Project Manager.com - @ProjectTips
ProjectManager.NET - @ProjectNetwork
Elizabeth Harrin - @pm4girls
Lindsay Scott - @projectmgmt
Paul Slater - @Mushcado
Linky Van Der Merwe - @virtualpm
Ideally, try and create an affiliate program to drive quality traffic from these influencers/ publishers. Do NOT get on any program where your expenses are not directly aligned with the number of signups. You can use partnerstack.com to run these campaigns.
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Step 5: The PR + Social Media Game
Here is the list of journalists who covered this space recently.
In terms of traditional social media, none of these companies have any strong presence. So it is a good opportunity for a new player to fill that void.
The platforms ideal for this market would be:
Twitter
Reddit (saturated)
Indie Hackers
Focus on platforms with low competition but only ones that have your core audience.
Twitter is great to make personal pitches. You can do things as simple as responding to people asking questions/commenting on topics around release notes (Related Tweets).
You can also directly reach out to PMs and ask them to try your product.
Reddit is brutal when it comes to promotions, so engage only through a knowledge sharing angle. You can also directly reach out to companies that have shared release notes related content and ask them to take your product for a spin. (Search page for release notes)
Consider also creating a subreddit for your brand and treat it like a “second” customer support knowledge base, it will reduce significant support time + you’ll rank for important keywords since Reddit has super-high SEO authority.
Finally, Indie Hackers is a good platform to both launch your product + share timely updates. The milestone section is fairly low competition, so use that to not only share updates but also to subtly announce plans or offers. But, do not spam.
On Indie Hackers you can also create your own community/group around your brand and build an audience on the platform.
So that is it!
How did you find this edition of the newsletter? Let me know by replying to this email with a “yes” if you liked it. I’m trying different content types based on your feedback, so let me know if you’d like more content on similar lines.
Special Announcement
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So, I’ve decided to do it. You can now order your own competition report customised based on your business or even just a business idea.
Only you will get access to this report.
This is a great way to validate your ideas or even explore new ones.
In this report, you’ll get:
1. SEO Keywords that your competition is using
2. Content ideas that'll help you rank above competition
3. List of communities you can leverage for growth
4. Q&A opportunities to gain more exposure
5. List of influencers with audience in your niche
Additional Bonuses (Value $300):
Bonus 1: 4-5 growth hacks your can use to grow your SaaS product.
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Frill.co has a free release notes product and it's unlimited. We are bootstrapped and profitable within one year of launching. (full disclosure: I'm one of the co-founders)