We launched Kuhcoon into public beta on January 10th, 2014. Our vision for the beta was simple: keep press and marketing to a minimum, build one-on-one relationships with users, and iterate based on their feedback. Quality over quantity.

Our approach paid off tenfold. By keeping the beta small and organized we were able to build personal relationships with our users and gain invaluable insight into our product. We started a small private Facebook group where we have been posting consistent product updates and answering questions from some of our most loyal users. This group helps us connect with them in a way that wouldn’t be possible through something like email.

“It’s so much better to make a few people love you, than a lot of people just like you.”—Paul Buchheit

Thanks to the amazing feedback from users in this group we’ve made a number of important product improvements. This was only one of the many ways our early adopters helped us this month. Several wrote blog posts, made recommendations to friends on Twitter, made email introductions to new users, and spent time communicating with us directly to give their feedback. The numbers below were only made possible because of these early adopters:

Total users: 541

340 are daily active users

402 are weekly active users

Time spent on site per user visit: 1 min 48s

Time spent in app per open: 40 seconds

Optimized campaigns created in past week: 212

Total campaign spend from optimized campaigns in past week: ~$5500

Total active campaigns monitored on system: 4732

Total spend of active campaigns monitored on system: $2,519,820.53

Average savings per optimized campaign: 18%

Some press we received thanks to our early adopters:

1. Manage Facebook Ad Campaigns On IOS Devices Via Kuhcoon Ads
2. Manage Your Facebook Ad Campaigns From Your iPhone with Kuhcoon Ads
3. Manage your Facebook Ads On The Go with Kuhcoon Ads — Cool Tool
4. 5 Social Media Tools You MUST Use in 2014
5. What if You Could Manage Your Facebook Ads on Mobile? You can with Kuhcoon!

Our first month also came with several roadblocks and problems:

1. How do we differentiate between our mobile app and our web app?
   Many of our users are strictly using our mobile app and missing out on the powerful campaign optimization features of our web app. This will be one of our more difficult problems to solve going forward. We have a few ideas in mind, but are focused on shipping our full line of mobile apps before we implement some new feature testing.
2. How do we price a cutting edge product?
   Facebook has over 1 million advertisers and growing. Our goal is to help each of them cut costs and increase the conversions of their Facebook Ads from the palm of their hand. This market is largely untapped when it comes to third party tools for SMB’s. We are also first to market with a full line of mobile apps, leaving us little to compare to. I’ll be writing a full post on our thought process and struggles with pricing when we go live, so more on this later.
3. How do we scale distribution when we exit public beta?
   Distribution is arguably the most difficult part of scaling any business. You might have the best product on the market, but if no one knows it exists that won’t matter. We’ve spent the past several weeks meeting with partners and agencies who have been beta testing our product. We’ve lined up several trusted partners who will expand our distribution efforts beyond anything we could have accomplished alone. Our goal is to build mutually beneficial relationships with partners who believe in our vision for the future of social advertising.
4. How do we improve the product and user experience?
   This is something I don’t think we will ever be done asking ourselves. We are obsessed with creating the best product on the market and saving our users time, money, and headaches. We love hearing from users and nonusers alike. Some of the most brutal “negative” feedback has been our guiding light in product development and improvement, so don’t be afraid to reach out to us with any and all insight you have to offer!

What’s next?

1. Ship our Android app. Update: Done

2. Ship our iPad app in the next 2-3 weeks. Update: Done.

3. Exit public beta and turn on pricing. Update: Done.

4. Ship web product improvements specifically: better optimization and more detailed analytical data.

5. Focus on strategic partnerships for distribution.

6. Use our own product to run Facebook Ads and increase digital marketing efforts.

7. Explore financing options, but focus on customer growth and product development.