🚀 Alec’s Entrepreneurial Journey: From Student Project to $700,000 in Revenue
- Alec, a 22-year-old immigrant, launched an online business that generated $700,000 in just 3 months.
- He started the company with a co-founder while in college, with zero initial funding.
- The company, aori, is a research workflow platform that helps researchers manage citations, references, and conduct literature reviews using AI.
- Alec and his co-founder participated in a pitch competition, won $10,000, and then launched the product on Product Hunt, ranking 4th.
- The product gained immediate traction, with nearly half of their college signing up to use it within a month.
- Alec had trouble finding a job after graduating due to immigration issues, so he decided to turn his student project into a full-fledged startup.
- The startup eventually received $100,000 in funding from a venture capital firm, Sputnik ATX, which helped them take their business to the next level.
- Alec shares the key books and strategies that have helped him on his entrepreneurial journey, including the importance of customer feedback and not focusing solely on revenue.
🗺️ Alec’s Startup Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles
- As an international student, Alec faced difficulties finding a job after graduating, applying to over 500 different companies.
- To avoid being kicked out of the US, Alec and his co-founder decided to start their own business, initially as a student project for a pitch competition.
- After losing the pitch competition, Alec had to choose between returning to Vietnam or incorporating the business idea into a full-time startup.
- Alec and his co-founder invested less than $10,000 of their own money to sustain the company and launch it on Product Hunt.
- The intense 48-hour effort to launch on Product Hunt paid off, with the product ranking 4th, without any significant marketing or funding.
- The success on Product Hunt caught the attention of a venture capital firm, Sputnik ATX, which then invested $100,000 in the startup.
📚 Alec’s Recommended Entrepreneurial Books
- The Mom Test: Alec learned how to properly interview users and focus on their needs, not just pitching the product.
- Digital Marketing: Alec gained a comprehensive understanding of various marketing tactics and chose the first five strategies to invest his initial $5,000.
- Get Backed: Alec learned the exact recipe for building a pitch deck that helped him raise over $500,000 in venture capital funding.
🗣️ Alec’s Approach to Customer Feedback and Iteration
- Alec and his co-founder actively sought feedback from their users, sending out emails to ask for feedback at different milestones (1 month, 6 months).
- They asked the right questions to get valuable feedback and used it to continuously improve their product.
- Alec believes that by focusing on building the best product for their customers, the revenue will naturally follow, rather than solely focusing on revenue.
- The partnership with AppSumo provided them access to a highly engaged user base, further fueling their feedback loop and product iterations.
