Hi Friends!😀

I am starting a weekend edition of The Day 1 Lab where I will be interviewing startup founders each week to showcase their startup journey and the lessons we can learnt.

In today’s edition, we are featuring:

Scrollme(💵 Pre-Revenue)

Scrollme brings everything you created on the internet in one instagram-worthy profile

👨‍🚀Founders: Deepak Kumar

🌎️Location: India

💰️Funding: Bootstrapped

💳️Monetization: Free

🏠️Category: Web app, iOS/Android app

1. Hi Deepak, what's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

Thanks Chase for interviewing me and giving me the opportunity to write about Scrollme. I have been building products, communities and startups for the last six years now. I have seen plenty of failures and a few successes. I have bootstrapped, raised money, and sold a product too. I have been through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. That's the backstory of who I am.

Scrollme is a newly born idea that I am working on. Through years, my work has been scattered on the internet in the form of products, tweets, blogs, videos, and podcasts. I wanted to bring all of it in one place, so I built Scrollme.today. Bring everything you create on the internet in one place. All your Instagram posts, tweets, YouTube videos, Dribbble shots, Spotify Podcasts, Blogs, and Newsletters.

2. How did you build Scrollme and get your first 100 users?

Our work on the internet is scattered across different platforms. So bringing them together is a no brainer. But, building the product is a different story.

There's so many platforms on the internet, each of them have their own way of storing and retrieving data. So, we had to build a system that can understand each platform's API and fetch the right data and show it in a beautiful way.

We use authorized APIs that we successfully got the rights to make use of. You just need to give us your permission, and we create a beautiful feed for you. You have the option to pause, remove or disconnect at your convenience. We respect your privacy.

I am truly enjoying the Scrollme experience.

We have crossed 150 users now, and 450 more people are in the waiting list.

September 26th we announced the idea, put up a simple waitlist page using Beehiiv the modern newsletter platform - which is pretty amazing. Honestly, we didn't even have a custom domain back them. I used their free plan to get started.

Within the first 2 months, more 200 people joined the waitlist. That got us excited about the idea. I have been building this in public, so you can follow the complete story on my scrollme page.

I wrote newsletter issues to keep the subscribers engaged, and acquired more users along the way. I interviewed creators, and that helped tap into their audience. I spent zero dollars on advertising. Content is my marketing. For every 4 hours of effort into writing, I spent 4 days on marketing, basically distributing the content. That helped me grow the waitlist.

3. Since launch, what strategies have worked to attract and retain partnerships and customers?

January 2nd week, we got the licence from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Dribbble. We starting giving away referral codes to some people on the waitlist. And also used conferences, events to partner with and gave away for 10-20 referral codes to the participants. We now receive some emails everyday asking for the referral code which makes us feel damn good about the product.

We're now automating the referral code generation and distribution process. Existing Scrollme users will be able to generate their own referral code and share it with their friends.

4. What were the biggest challenges you faced and lessons learnt?

Biggest challenge has been coming up with a product user experience that is simple and intuitive. We're still on the journey of figuring it all out. Lesson learnt is that always build a waitlist and get people to sign up for it before you launch. Pre-validate your idea. Build a community around it.

One thing I could do is to do more influencer marketing. I could have done more of that to get the word out there. I am now working on it, but I could have done it earlier. I should have pressed the accelerator on that.

But no problem, I think everything works out in the end.

5. What is your advice to entrepreneurs who are just starting?

Entrepreneurs, the creators are smart. They will figure it out and make it work. But if there's one thing I want to share with them, it's to be patient and not ever quit.

Don't be obsessed with the idea of winning. Just focus on your passion and the journey. Keep getting better, wiser at your decisions. Don't compare yourself with others, not even your competition. Your journey is unique.

You will eventually figure it out.

That’s all for today!

Stay tuned for next weekend’s interview with a founder who created a directory online to find useful tools around the web!

Share your startup or project with us here - it’s free!

Know any startup that you would like us to interview? Let us know!

Share this newsletter with your friends: