From First Revenue to Repeat Customers and Beyond in Another 12 Hours: Learnings from Running My First Startup
(This is the continuation of: From Idea to Revenue in 12 Hours: How I Launched my First Startup and Disrupted the Online Entertainment Industry Forever)
It’s crazy. i am kathrin. is already 1 day old. One. whole. day. A mature company so to say. We’ve come a long way in the past few hours.
We’ve acquired new customers.
We’ve managed to convince customers to become repeat customers.
We’ve irritated people.
We’ve talked to investors.
We’ve been elected Top Startup of 2015 by @eskarina.
We’ve also kinda ruined someone’s life, but that’s a dark chapter of our long one-day history, so we won’t go into detail.
We’ve been featured on ProductHunt, only to find out, that we’re actually not really featured on ProductHunt, since “not every startup makes it onto the homepage”. That’s ok. We still want to thank everybody, who upvoted us.
We’ve also managed to make 193$ revenue. Three. whole. digits. Any early stage startup’s wet dream really.
Basically we rock.
We’ve also promised people to plant some trees, should they donate more than 5$ to i am kathrin., thanks to the input of one of our advisors, who figured: People like to feel good about themselves.
Most importantly, however, we’ve pivoted. We are now a social enterprise. And when I said that, I actually wasn’t joking.
Yes, this whole thing started as a joke yesterday evening and yes, over the past 24 hours, I’ve had quite a bit of fun with it. However, the experience also got me thinking. How amazing is this actually? I made a webpage about myself. Nothing. But. Myself. And then I asked people to give me money, just because, I am who I am. Many believed in me, and every single contribution, no matter, how big or small, was so incredibly special to me. Every share, every fav, every kind word, just really made the last 24 hours memorable. I doubt myself sometimes and having so many people step up “just because”, was the best feeling in the world. I made money, just being myself. And I thought it just kinda comes to show, that it pays off to be yourself. Literally.
Yes, it started off as a joke, but somehow over the past few hours, I’ve realised, that this whole thing is really also about having the courage to be yourself and putting yourself out there. About not being perfect and making mistakes. And people being ok with that. About you being ok with that. Be yourself and follow your dreams. The rest will somehow (hopefully) fall into place.
And this is why I have decided to donate the 193$ that my awesome startup i am kathrin. has made over the past 24 hours to Rails Girls Summer of Code, an initiative that allows women to spend an entire summer learning how to code. Why?
Reason 1: I need a new CTO. Have you seen the page?!
Reason 2: I want to help equip women with the skills they need in order to pursue the careers they want for themselves. Maybe even in the startup scene, that is in urgent need of some girl power, if you ask me.
Reason 3: I also personally know a few of the people running the initiative and know, that your money will be in good hands.
For those of you, who donated to i am kathrin. mainly because they wanted me to plant a tree. No worries. I will still plant a tree and post a video of it.
Thanks to all of those, who have donated money and time and were part of what I now like to call the “It pays off to be yourself” initiative.
You’re all awesome! ❤
xoxo, Kathrin
CEO/CMO/CFO/UFO i am kathrin.
PS: If someone wants to come and plant some trees with me in June, let me know.
PPS: If someone wants to sponsor a tree planting get-together in the Vienna area, let me know as well. ;)
