I launched SavvyCal to #2 Product of the Month in January and have since crossed $20k MRR — AMA!

@jeffrey_fate I'm definitely aiming toward profitability, but raising some (non-VC) funds from TinySeed and an angel investor has allowed me to make investments in people and marketing channels ahead of our current revenue level. I use Summit (https://usesummit.com) on a regular basis to model my business and gain confidence that I can continue placing bets with my funds (without sacrificing the amount of cash buffer I'd like to maintain). So I'm less concerned about "thriftiness" right now if I can justify the expense as something that will move the business forward. Here's an example of what my Summit board looks like right now: https://cln.sh/jCWf8T

@connor_lindsey This is always a work-in-progress :). Some things that contribute to staying healthy for me: * I'm regularly in contact with a small mastermind group, and we function as a sounding board for each other. Sometimes it helps to just rant about something for 5 minutes to get it off my chest. * I try to contain work within work hours and switch gears in the evening. Cooking is generally what helps me bridge over from work-mode to non-work-mode. * Getting at least 8 hours of quality sleep each night. * Strength training and cardio exercise several times per week.

@connor_lindsey @derrickreimer Can't emphasize enough on this balance 💪🏻

@archisman_das The idea for SavvyCal came from my own experience using scheduling tools. When I'm in the idea mode, I often scribble notes down in my idea notebook in case they are worth revisiting. I also periodically reflect on the tools that I use in my day-to-day and think about pain points I've encountered using them. "Scratching your own itch" is definitely not a silver bullet, but it can be a great starting point to recognize a problem worth solving! Once I formed my own hypothesis about the need for a new solution in this space, I set out to try to find reasons why my hypothesis was flawed. I definitely received some signals pointing to "this is already an adequately solved problem", but also picked up on a healthy amount of discontent. At a certain point, I felt convinced enough to invest time into building the MVP.

@5harath We recently installed Churnkey (https://churnkey.co/), which allows us to build custom cancellation flows: * We offer to let folks pause their subscription instead of fully cancelling. * If they just have some questions, we offer to help them out over email + get a free month of service * We gather some info about why they're canceling (too expensive, low usage, didn't work as expected, etc.) This has been pretty helpful to get a sense for why people are leaving (and to save some customers from fully churning).

@yangzi_jiang Glad to hear it, Yangzi!

@donkooijman Thanks Don!

@gabe__perez The biggest thing is shielding my time. For some, this means budgeting every minute of the day. I prefer to keep a lot of whitespace on my calendar and very rarely allow synchronous calls or meetings to slip in. I have a standing short meeting once a week with Corey to sync up (about half the time we kick that over to async) and I record my podcast weekly on Thursdays. Most other days are wide open to allow maximum deep work. If I do need to book a call, I try my best to put them in the afternoon (when I'm less productive anyway) or on Thursday (when I'm already breaking my normal flow with podcast recording). It's tough to say "no" sometimes to requests for my time mid-workday, but I've found it to be essential for me at this phase of the business.

@derrickreimer great advice! Could be cool to integrate a pomodoro timer or some sort of function within SavvyCal to help keep you productive and shield your time. Thanks for sharing 🙏

@anil_meena21 Thanks Anil! My initial traction came from marketing the product to people who were already following my founder journey on Twitter and my podcast (these are things I've been investing in growing for the last 5 - 10 years). Our Product Hunt launch was quite successful in January of this year. This drove a huge wave of awareness and further helped jumpstart growth. We've been experimenting a lot this year with different channels, some short-term and some long-term: * PPC ads * Podcast ads * SEO * Affiliates & referrals * Strategic partnerships * "Build in public" activity * Guesting on podcasts All of these things have contributed in some way to our brand awareness and growth.