How Tamilpreneur MVP got 2000 paid users
All with just ₹15,000 investment
Tamilpreneur Club was launched in just 10 days.
The entire Tamilpreneur team landed in Chennai on December 6th. We launched Tamilpreneur Club, our first product on December 17th.
Hell yeah! We were even ready to launch on December 15th.
How did we do it ! Let's find out!
Minimum viable testing product
In August 2021, we launched the Tamilpreneur Fellowship program. The motive was simple. Help aspiring entrepreneurs get from idea to launch in 6 weeks.
We had 200 applicants. We spoke to every single one of them.
Gathered their pain points. Expectations.
The program was free. We selected 60 members for the cohort.
We replicated the entire to-be club offering in the fellowship program.
Members who joined TFP:
Got onboarded on Tamilpreneur Club
Prepared case studies on startups in the first week
Attended masterclasses to gain knowledge
Attended fireside chats to directly interact with seasoned entrepreneurs
Spent a lot of time online networking with fellow members
Met their cofounders, found ways to collaborate
For Tamilpreneur,
The result was,
1. Identified core offering - learning and networking.
2. Identified product pricing - lesser than 2000 per year.
3. Identified target audience - 18-35, Tamil speaking, Idea and pre-MVP stage.
As soon as we realized our B2B2C (Entrepreneurship for college students) isn't working, I put papers in my organization on Aug 15.
This is as opposed to "resign once you gain traction/ revenue". Please avoid doing this unless you want to be on fire.
I was on the hot seat now.
The fellowship program ended and also my job.
I had a 15 day gap to shift stuffs, set things here in Chennai.
The team (just 3 members) assembled here on Dec 6, 2021.
Here's what we did in the next 10 days,
1. Thinking in first principles:
- Analyzed customer journey and wrote 100+ tasks that would lead to launch Tamilpreneur Club.
Result: Helped us not to miss even the intricate level of details. Made us realize launch is not binary. It's the sum of all effective small tasks.
2. Automation:
- If customers bought our product, they should get the link to join Club immediately. No time for "later". No time for 'manual invitation'.
We did this using Zapier. If a customer paid, grab email, then send an invite.
Result: Smooth process from payment to signing up for Club.
3. Rigorous testing:
- Called all our old friends inside TN, outside TN, outside India for a video call. We stayed silent in the call and watched how members went till the payment page and bought the product.
(Fun fact: Some even told us not to refund once testing was done)
Result: We noted 30+ mistakes only just during our testing and corrected all of it.
Mistakes we avoided (that saved ₹30L+):
1. Not developing our own platform:
Our strength is community building (not platform building)
We identified multiple companies that provided white labelled community platforms and paid a monthly fee (not annual) for Mighty Network subscription platform. Four years later, Tamilpreneur Club still runs on... Mighty network.
2. Relying on credits before buying paid versions:
We were extremely dependent on Zoho. Zoho Subscriptions to setup hosted payment pages, Zoho Workdrive for storage, Zoho Email, Zoho Sign, Zoho invoice and much more. We got everything for free. The website was built on Wix.
We would have actually paid more than ₹1,00,000, but getting credits helped us save a lot of money. Thanks to ‘Zoho for Startups’ program.
For people trying to build their own product, they'd have to choose a platform to host it. They'd have to start with a bare minimum of ₹2L. But AWS, Azure, Digital Ocean - all of them offer credits.
If you are building an MVP and planning to test the market, and don't want to burn your pockets.
Apply for credits immediately.
Recommended ways to build MVP and launch
1. Identify
a) Core offering,
b) Product pricing,
c) Target audience.
2. Build
a) Free user base before launching paid version,
b) Within 10 days,
c) Always build by leveraging credits.
Recommended tools to build MVP
Website hosting: AWS, GCP, Azure, Digital Ocean
Automation: Make.com, Zapier, Pabbly Connect
Website: Webflow, Wix, Wordpress
Note taking: Miro, Notion, Obsidian
Build the best Build quickly and launch.
By the way,
We offer,
AWS Activate - credits upto $10,000
Zoho for Startups - credits worth INR 1.86L
Google Cloud - Get upto $2,000 in credits
Notion+ - credits upto $6,000 for 6 months
Webflow CMS - credits of ₹30,000 for one year
Miro - credit of ₹30,000 for one year
DigitalOcean - credit of $5000 for one year
Make - credit of $600 for one year
All the above are part of Club+ - a founder only club for growth stage entrepreneurs
Who can apply:
People building MVP
People who launched product but looking to save time & money
Bootstrapped startups
Solo founders tired of figuring it all out alone
Founders stuck after their first launch
People who want to grow without burning cash
Early-stage teams looking for clarity, tools & support
Builders who want a value of up to ₹22 lakhs for just ₹14,999.