Is it possible you're making the common error of wanting to build something new?

It's pretty awesome that you've got something making $1600/mo without any proper marketing. It seems insane to me to abandon that effort for something else. Not to mention, if your next project takes off, you'll probably find yourself in the same situation again.

I would double down on this one. You'll likely have a lot of learning to do, but it's gonna be a good education and possibly very profitable.

I did fell into that pitfall when I built keenly. Just wanted to build something new.

But then, only when I received good feedback I thought to proceed with it.

I won't deny, the new thing is definitely appealing because it's new. But you make a good point about finding myself in the same place again.

I've had some good options presented here and I'm leaning towards focusing on rosterbird and try to get a growth engine going and then, maybe, once it's sustainable, I can try new things if I still wanted to.

There's probably room in your life for both. Keenly becomes another side project.

The smart money though is on the thing that's working. Take the time to understand why it's working, and how it might grow future wise, and user wise. This is not fun like programming but makes the things you build more successful.

At the same time put some limited hours into keenly. It makes a good distraction, and we all like a change from time to time.

Always remember that building things successfully takes multiple skills. You've got the programming down, but learning the rest can be just as satisfying.

And don't be scared to ask for help. There are lots of successful people around you who can help if you just bother to ask.

Good feedback is worthless. If they’re willing to pay for it right now, that’s maybe worth something (they need to actually use it too). I recommend reading The Mom Test, it’s a great book about how to navigate this early validation stage from a non-sales perspective.

Focus on the product that’s making money with minimal effort. You will learn a lot in the process (it may make sense to bring in some contractors to help you along in certain areas). Maybe you find you really don’t want to take that any further, at least you’ll have a much stronger understanding of the product, market, etc which will help you sell it off for a higher price and fund focus on the next thing.

I would have phrased it differently but would have said the same thing.

No other words are necessary.

Stick! Don’t twist! Don’t fold!

Depends why you are doing this. If it is for the money stick to the first project that is making money. It has a much higher chance of succeeding.

You might try to grow it. Affiliate models can be sketchy, but that doesn't mean the model is broken. I'd be willing to put some advertising dollars into trying to grow signups if you're interested - as a programmer/marketer, I'd like to try and grow a business w/ PMF.

The advantage of affiliate marketing is a 3rd party takes the financial risk that it doesn't increase sales. The downside is you don't own your acquisition funnel. If both parties are aligned, it can work out.

As someone in a similar boat, my advice would be to start working on just driving attention/traffic to each one and see what the market tells you. It doesn't matter than your more recent idea is not as far along, there are lot of opportunities for lead generation outside of actually using the product (scorecards, waiting lists, etc...)

It doesn't matter how great either idea is if you can't get people to look at it. Focus there.

Have you thought about selling the 1600MRR one?

If you would be interested you can email me on my mail in bio and we can discuss.

I've thought about it in the past, but the risk/reward ratio is better if I just run it myself.

Also, the whole selling process was a huge turnoff for me as the offers were at most 3x arr and lots of tirekickers when I posted on acquire.

Out of curiosity, what is your expectation for such a project? 3x arr is a standard measure, especially for such small numbers.

From my experience, x arr is not a reliable metric for products of this size. They don't exactly have risk covered returns due to their size and they're usually bought for their growth prospect than any meaningful return it can give.

I didn't have any particular expectation per se, any x arr with the potential baked in is fine. But the most conversations I've had are bog-standard x months of profit and people looking to acquire it as an asset, which makes sense for them, but doesn't for me as I mentioned before the risk is pretty low in keeping it myself.

First of all congrats for creating something and achieving some traction. However, on the valuation side I think the things are a bit different. The size is just too small to justify a higher multiple, because you have to maintain the product, invest in marketing, etc. Until at least 5-6k mrr the buyer would be at a net negative (either hire someone to maintain or do it themselves and in a lot of countries the mrr is enough for neither).

A strategic buyer might buy it for the potential, but also at that size they can likely copy it quickly and with a bit of marketing scale it up.

I guess it's a bit of this and bit of that. The products I've sold before or discussed with others were on the former side. I think that was largely due to the metrics that are usually used to qualify (churn, MoM growth, etc.) are bit less impactful compared to a mature, stablized product.

It's mostly seen as a jumping board for them to quickly get going, compared to finding idea, building it, getting some SEO footing, etc. That's just my anecdotal experience btw.

> I've went full-time on this, so it is imperative for me to choose a right path and proceed

Sounds like you should focus on growing rosterbird's MRR to a sustainable income for you, and then you can decide whether you want to keep working on it or attempt something new like keenly.so

Who is your current customer base? Why don't you go after more of them?