From Idea to Revenue in 12 Hours: How I Launched my First Startup and Disrupted the Online Entertainment Industry Forever

It is 5:46. I am sitting at the desk in my apartment writing those lines. Why? Because I’ve read somewhere that successful people get up early. I think it was on Lifehacker. Or on the Buffer blog. Or maybe on Techcrunch. It is dark outside, the room is quiet and finally I have some time to reflect on the past 12 hours. What a rollercoaster ride!

From Idea to MVP in less than 2 Hours

But let’s start from the beginning. It was yesterday afternoon, when it all started with a tweet. I was working and thought about how much more fun it would be to be at a pool or beach or Justin Bieber concert, instead of in an office and expressed my thought on twitter, where all my almost 10 000 followers (only 7200 to go), were eagerly awaiting my tweets.

Yes, it was actually easy. In order to be at a pool, beach or Justin Bieber concert all the time, I just needed to find a way to enable people to pay me for my mere existence. After receiving one fav on my tweet, I saw, that there was huge demand out there in the market. I had identified a huge business opportunity. Finally, it would be possible for my followers, my fans, my tribe, to pay me back for all those years of free entertainment, I had provided. I could literally feel their excitment, as I uploaded my new (free) Wordpress theme and wrote the content for the website/landing page/start up, that was going to change my life and impact the lives of so many people around me. I was about to disrupt the online entertainment industry forever. I knew, that I was working on something big, as I embedded a cat video from YouTube and installed the Paypal Donate button. From idea to MVP and beyond (cat video!!) in one hour. I was impressed with myself. Even Startup Weekend startups need a whole weekend. Even Pieter Levels would be impressed. I rock.

Launch Day… eh… Hour

Well, after all those draining minutes of having the idea and executing on it, the big moment, I had been looking forward to for minutes was finally here. The launch hour of i am kathrin. had come. I took a bio break, just before the big moment, to collect myself and prepare myself for what was about to happen. Were people going to love my website/landing page/startup, just as much as I did? Would they use it? Was I ready for the launch? So many thoughts were in my head, but then I remembered:

There’s only 2 startups in the world. Those who are ashamed of their code when they launch, and those who never make it.

I was ready. I took a deep breath and hit “Tweet”. Then I waited. For 1 minute and there it was. The first (and only ) Retweet. I’d done it. My PR strategy had worked. I’d gone viral. However, I made a very conscious decision not to start the launch party (go to 7eleven to buy beer) yet. I needed to stay focused. So I repeated on Facebook, what had worked so well on Twitter. The format wasn’t perfect, but it’s the content that counts, right? RIGHT? 3 Minutes go by. No like. Should I have prepared more? Tested before I launched? While I was still thinking about this, I received a Twitter message from an early adopter, who said he had problems with the payment process. I freaked out. Here I was, with customers, that were basically lining up to pay me and I couldn’t process their orders. It was horrible. I put my CTO (myself) to work, making sure she (me) knew, that this was the one and only priority and that she (I) needed to find the bug as quickly as possible in order to not lose traction with our early adoptors. Luckily it didn’t take too long before the problem was solved and I could finally turn to Twitter, where our customers, who eagerly became co-creaters in my endeavor to disrupt online entertainment, started to approach me with ideas, on features, they wanted to see. Their ideas were amazing and my CTO (I) couldn’t wait to implement them.

It was also at this time, when I suddenly got the message I’d been waiting for. The first paying customer. I was in shock, happy, sad, excited, amazed, but most importantly I had made 4$. Single digit revenue. I couldn’t believe it! Well, actually I could and I almost picked up the phone to call Dave McClure to let him know I was ready to join 500 Startups. Then I paused though. Did I really need investment at this stage? I mean: Afterall I was profitable after only 3 hours. I had a great product, traction, I had paying customers and I had… And yes. That was the moment, when I noticed that I was navigating a cruise ship in the dark. Kinda like the Titanic. No metrics. I’d forgotten to install Google analytics. Needless to say: My CTO (me) needed to get on it right away.

Things were crazy, but I needed a break. it was midnight by then, and as Arianna Huffington told me to sleep my way to the top, I went to bed.

Business As Usual

I woke up. Had it all just been a dream? Was I really the Founder/CEO/CTO/CMO/CFO/UFO of a startup, that was skyrocketing? I’d made 62$. DOUBLE DIGIT REVENUE. I also had customers on 3 continents. It hit me: I was running a global business. I knew many startups, who hadn’t made 62$ in their first year of existence. It was right not to give up equity too early (the day before), I was confident, that I could do it. One thing was sure: I was on to something big here…

To be continued…

PS: I would like to thank Eric Ries, WordPress, the Academy and Grumpy Cat, who never stopped believing in me. You’re awesome. Just like me.

(Read the continuation of this story here: From First Revenue to Repeat Customers and Beyond in Another 12 Hours: Learnings from Running My First Startup)