I have few separate part from different projects, that can be combined
* One is web - Figma like editor with variables, UI https://ibb.co/99GGLRt
* Second is fast and cheep renderer with Cloudflare workers that can use project from that editor
So, my idea was combine them as dynamic image API that will be very cheep and fast. I have did some rough calculation and it can dramatically cheaper than alternatives (Bannerbear, Robolly, Placid and etc, like a lot other and recently launched more here and on PH). But almost all have about 49$/month per 1000 images subscription. And I bet all using puppiter to generate that. While solution is technically different and my math say it easily can be profitable for me to be like 5$ plan for 1000 images.
I know that it's good to target high priced product and cheep price can lead to more issue with users, and a market crowded with already working solutions...
But, I just really sad to just leave that projects on shelf. But in same time I understand that only advantage here is only price. And as I really suck at marketing, so it will be just like once shoot on PH, etc.
So, I have few question:
1. What do you think? Is it worth to place things together and launch it?
2. Are you using/used such dynamic images api and price issue was a thing for you?
Really happy to hear any thought. Have a great day!
Right now you are playing developer. You need to play marketing guy. What can you sell? I would focus on selling anything. If you can figure that out you can figure out how to market your product.
A bootstrap entrepreneur time - 80% should be on marketing.
You can not win - there are too many other options that are the same (or cheaper) than you to do it
Compete on quality - every time
Do not undervalue yourself
If you are a general contractor, do not aim to the cheapest in the area ... homeowners will shy away from you
If you are a consultancy, do not aim to be the cheapest for the product/service you offer ... businesses will shy away from you
Do not aim to be the most expensive - but DO aim to be "the best"
This is why I work at a big corporation. While I can romanticize the life of a solo dev entrepreneur, I know I’d never do the sales side of the job, and it would ultimately go nowhere.
You have to be honest with yourself and ask what you’re willing/able to do. For those things you’re not willing to do, or not good at, are you willing to bring it help? Can you afford to bring in help at this point or is it too late?
Taking a 9-5 job doesn’t mean your projects have to die. It just means you don’t have to rely on them to pay your bills. Though keeping it alive would take more will and intentionality.
This is a bad strategy for a business. Price is the worst thing to compete upon.
my math say it easily can be profitable for me to be like 5$ plan for 1000 images
Your math is probably wrong because customer acquisition and retention is hard. At $5, you have to find 200 customers to make $1000. And you have to keep them happy.
What is counter-intuitive about B2B sales is that your customers want to pay you enough money to keep you in business (because switching services has a lot of overhead). Being really cheap is a red-flag to potentially good customers because they know you can't stay in business.
Good customers are reliability sensitive. And service sensitive. Not price sensitive. Good luck.
Agree - unless you are Walmart or Amazon (or local equivalent) ... you can NOT compete on price
Walmart does not have to "care" much about its millions of customers - where else are you going to buy Mac-N-Cheese? If Walmart loses a customer, they do not care ... nor do they care if they get another customer: because their sales model is very simple: be the "cheapest" option for XYZ there is ... and even if they are not the "cheapest" for one item, they are for the other 92 things in your basket - so you are going to check out anyway
What's the evidence for this? I know plenty startups who went down this path and are very successful - eg EmailOctopus is the one I'm most familiar with.
> Being really cheap is a red-flag to potentially good customers because they know you can't stay in business.
Doubt any business will do a solvency assessment based on the price you're charging. If you're a startup, they'll think it's a high chance you fail no matter the price you charge.
Too cheap to stay in business is a heuristic that avoids the work of detailed analysis.
The basis of the heuristic is that cheap incentives cutting corners —- cutting corners has a large effect on profit when margins are low.
Cheap also pursues a market segment biased toward cost saving rather than growing revenue. Companies focused on growing revenue align better with companies similarly focused.
Finally, as the OP’s question might suggest, hoping low price will be enough is often a way of avoiding the hard work of sales.
That’s a positive feedback cycle. The lower the price the less money there is for sales and service and the more a company must rely on low price.
But hey, you might be right even though I’ve heard of Oracle but not Email Octopus.
I'm aware of all the MBA theory around pricing. But it doesn't matter that much when you're starting off. You need to find the right entrypoint in the market, and pricing can be one valid reason why people will end up buying your product.
Betting on logical possibility is bad business strategy.
Now more I think about it, more I believe Open Source will be way forward for it...