SlideNotes is a web app my co-founder and I developed at the beginning of 2023 that turns PowerPoint presentations and PDFs into bulleted notes. After remaining dormant for some time, the user base started to grow steadily. Now, we have reached over 1,000 users, and we’ve been cashflow positive since day one. Here are several lessons I’ve learned over the past 9 months that can help you grow your startup from scratch:

1. Users don’t care about your tech stack: While the choice of tech stack can impact developer experience, application performance, and cost, it’s mostly hidden from the end user. So, use the tech stack you’re most comfortable with. Having a working product is far more valuable than a broken product with a ‘better’ tech stack that will quickly become outdated.

2. SEO is hard; market directly to your users: SEO can be a daunting task, as you’ll often be competing against well-established companies with vast experience and resources. Instead, find where your potential users gather, in person or online, and target your outreach. Use your existing users to help attract more users by building a product that adds significant value.

3. Being cash flow positive from day one is possible but requires careful planning: Traditional businesses usually start with loans, but with the right business model, product, and technology, you can achieve cash flow positivity from the beginning. We accomplished this with SlideNotes by eliminating fixed costs, using a freemium model, and taking advantage of resources like AWS.

4. Don’t try to change the world just yet: Building a startup doesn’t always mean revolutionizing an industry. Instead, create something that adds value to people’s lives and earn a fair share of that value for yourself.

5. Don’t optimize if you don’t know where you’re going: With a new startup, you’re often uncertain about your users’ needs. Avoid pre-optimization and focus on implementing, measuring, and iterating.

Getting the first paid user was an exhilarating experience. Now, gaining new users may seem routine, but it’s still remarkable that someone found value in a product I created, to the extent that they’re willing to pay for it. What an exciting time to be alive.