As makers and frequent form users, we were unsatisfied with the existing form building tools out there. They either force you in a specific format or bombard you with countless limits and paywalls. We wanted a simple, yet powerful form builder that allows you to create any type of form without breaking the bank. That's the reason why we started building Tally in the summer of 2020.

We started with cold outreach to creators, Indie Hackers, and startup founders, who might be interested in our product. We scanned Product Hunt and Twitter and made lists of hundreds of prospects and started doing cold outreach, asking for their feedback.

Because Tally is free, our product has become our biggest marketing channel. This is how our growth flywheel works:
1. Offering Tally for free lowers the barrier for people to try it out, and creates positive word of mouth.
2. Free users have a 'Made with Tally' badge on their forms, which turns our users into our biggest promotors and most important lead source.
3. About 3% of our free users upgrade to Tally Pro, which is how we make money.

Did you lauch free and pro version on the same time?

* It's okay to say no. You can not satisfy everyone when you have a small bootstrapped team, but that's okay.
* The art of persisting. Every day, I'm replying to emails, answering questions, writing help docs and Filip is coding and helping users out non-stop. Life as a bootstrapped founder sounds more glamorous than it is, but every dollar you make will make you insanely happy.
* Don't be afraid to ask. Every problem you encounter has been solved by someone else before you. There's a great community supportive of Indie Hackers out there that wants to see you succeed and will help you out. So, just ask!