Comments on: A Look Back at 2009

By: David Doull

David Doull — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:20:26 +0000

Thanks for this post, it’s always interesting to hear the background behind the start-up and you’ve been refreshingly honest. The white label approach may be a good way to go – I’ve had success in doing custom/white-label versions of my online garden planner, I’ve probably earned as much from that as from sales.

By: Eric Harrington

Eric Harrington — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:04:45 +0000

Good stuff. We launched in 2008 and it is still a challenge. We are in revenue now but ill tell you this much, we have earned every penny of it.

Our biggest challenge has been in marketing. As you already noted, focus on certain segments but don’t go too narrow. We made both mistakes and 2010 looks to be a breakout year for TeamSupport.

Believe in what you are doing and visualize what the end result looks like. Set your intentions and see them as being done, even though your eyes see something else. It will happen for you.

Happy New Year!

By: Zee Yang

Zee Yang — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:29:37 +0000

Dan, have you heard of fresh founders?

By: Chris Kleeschulte

Chris Kleeschulte — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:03:07 +0000

Found your post because Hacker News picked it up. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It is worth its weight in gold in my book. Your time sharing the experiences, that is.

By: Dan Hulton

Dan Hulton — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:33:14 +0000

You know, I’m running into the same issues with Bill On Site, almost exactly. I launched in late ‘09, planned to just AdWords it, and found that there’s way, WAY more to it. (And I’m also in Ottawa, funny that.)

I’m experimenting with writing custom landing pages for particular benefits of Bill On Site, and writing AdWords that target people interested in that benefit. So far, conversion is up, but it may also be that I rewrote the “prices” page to focus on the free trial, as well.

Keep experimenting, and keep blogging. We need more Ottawa-area tech startups hitting it big. =)