5 year project

Today, a little group fitness workout web app I created called BootCraft, turns 5 years old.

Creating things on the internet is strange because there is always a bit of a disconnect between yourself and the people who are using the thing you created. I really appreciate the odd email or comment that floats into my inbox from a trainer who uses BootCraft telling me how much it helps them with planning their sessions.

Here are 5 things I’ve learned in these past five years running a membership/SaaS website:

1. Elevate the super users. Pay attention to who is being most helpful and helping to lead the community. Give them more responsibility and encouragement.
2. Price for your market. The trend out there is to charge more and more for what you offer, but not all audiences are looking for the most expensive option. Know your audience, know what they’ll pay and price accordingly.
3. Start with an MVP. An MVP is a Minimal Viable Product. Your site doesn’t need to have all the bells and whistles to begin with. Start with the most basic thing it needs to do and just create then. Then keep shipping updates and improvements based on how people actually use what you’ve created.
4. Focus on doing one thing really well. Signing up to a new site only to be inundated by features, courses and lessons is a good way to feel overwhelmed. I always wanted BootCraft to be just about the workout ideas. That determined the design and what we focused on content wise.
5. But keep testing things. That said, you do want to keep testing new features and content in the background so that you can keep innovating and getting better.