Hi Kyleigh! Building new habits is always hard and there are so many different techniques and products that try to help.
SMS seems fun & simple! How did you come up with the idea?
Kyleigh
I read an article by Steph Smith entitled, "How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably", where she wrote about the importance of being consistent with small habits that compound. In another article she spelled it out: "The best way to stay committed to your goals is to a) track progress daily and b) share your progress openly."
This sounded simple enough, but there was one problem: I had tried tracking my habits before and it didn't work. I would make a beautiful table in my journal, get all excited, track for a few days, and then never look at it again.
That's where the idea for Harold came from. I needed a habit tracker that would come to me, ask me for the data, and make it really easy and convenient. That way I didn't have to remember to track / also have to make a habit of tracking at the same time I was trying to make habits of these other things. I had been interested in applications of SMS and this seemed like a great use case. It also seemed that SMS tech was getting easier to implement with no-code tools.
The name Harold came later. At the time my sister was pregnant with a boy and I wanted her to name him Harold. She wasn't going for it, so I just named my project that instead.
MicroFounder
I see you have your first paying customers – how did you find them?
Kyleigh
My biggest channels are Twitter, Product Hunt, and Google, in that order. I followed the build in public methodology on Twitter, just tweeting about my progress and journey, which worked well. And then I launched on Product Hunt which got me ~350 signups. Only a small number of those have converted to paid customers so far so I'm trying to learn more about the people who are willing to pay for it and what they want.
MicroFounder
You've launched on Product Hunt, won their $5,000 Maker Grant, been on On Deck Demo Day – what's your advice for other microfounders who want to get started?
Kyleigh
For one they can read my new guide I'm working on when it comes out on April 4th! 😉 This will have all my learnings/advice/tips for new makers in there.
But in short--if you don't have a technical background, I'd recommend joining a maker community like On Deck No Code or 100 Days of No Code which will accelerate your learning curve and help you get off the ground.
If you do have a technical background, I'd recommend building stuff that interests you or solves your own problems and then share that publicly on Twitter, Reddit, or wherever you hang out online.
Most important thing is to have fun and know there aren't any true overnight successes. You gotta start somewhere and enjoy the process every step of the way.
This was assuming we're talking about Saas/tech founders. If you're not looking to build software products, I'd recommend just finding a community with other people who want to do the same thing. For example, On Deck also has a podcasting program if that's what you're trying to do. Or there are a bunch of writing programs and communities too if thats what you're looking to do. Whatever it is--try to find a community for it
SMS seems fun & simple! How did you come up with the idea?