In your own words, what does your company do?
We are developing a user-friendly, and educational device that assists individuals in effectively managing their time and workload. While many people have experimented with digital time-tracking apps, only a small percentage continue to use them over time. This is because they lack intuitiveness, are destructive and fail in forming the right habit.
We solve this with a smart connected device we call TIMEFLIP. With a physical tracker, we offer a drastically different user experience that guarantees ease of use, immediate adoption, and accessibility for all, regardless of computer literacy. This tangible device sits on the user’s desk and records time with a simple flip, featuring a dodecahedron shape with 12 sides that can be designated for 12 tasks or activities.
TIMEFLIP is powered by our proprietary mobile and web apps and integrates with third-party services like popular calendars.
📈 Monthly revenue: $50,000
📈 ~% Churn: N/A
📈 ~% Net profit: Our net profit is about 20%, but currently we re-invest all of it in further product development and upgrades.
📈 Funding: Bootstrapped, plus we received $50,000 of acceleration funding from the Huge Thing accelerator in Warsaw in 2020.
📈 Initial cost/investment to start the company: About $110,000. (This is more a cost of hardware product development, rather than a cost to start the company per se)
📈 Number of team members: 5
📈 Number of founders: 2
📈 Started: 2019, September
How does the company make money?
💰 Our main source of income comes from the online sales of our trackers, sold directly to end customers or through resellers. TIMEFLIP tracker is priced at $59 and comes with forever free base-level software. In the near future, we plan to introduce a premium version of our software (PRO), which will have advanced product features. Our secondary revenue stream will come from charging a subscription fee for the PRO version. To promote its release, we will be offering a 6-month free PRO subscription with every new tracker ordered.
3 strategies that have worked to attract and retain customers?
✅ The bulk of our sales come from organic and referral traffic and we care much about SEO. To support that, we engage in inbound marketing activities, such as creating a blog section on our website dedicated to all things related to productivity. This helps to enhance credibility and attract a more targeted audience. We have observed a rise in our conversion rates since the implementation of our blog.
✅ We cooperate with online marketplaces and dropshipping platforms focused on smart innovative gadgets. Again, they work great on attracting target customers. We are very happy about our partnership with Robotshop on the North American market, they are fantastic! Recently, we started similar cooperation with NewTechStore in Europe and have more potential partners in our pipeline.
✅ Dealspotr deal-sharing platform remains a great tool for our referrals as in previous years. They and similar services are fantastic platforms and a “must-have” for any startup selling their own tangible products online, in my opinion.
3 things that you’ve learned about hiring and retaining great talent?
✅ In my view, the startup culture is crucial. While it may not be fully crystallized, it emanates from the founders or core team and resonates with others through shared values. Our team embodies the mindset of a small, yet tenacious and liberal startup, which naturally appeals to corporate employees who may feel their work lacks impact. Here anyone can witness the impact of their work daily, whether it’s through sales figures or client feedback. We cannot offer a shiny career path with a plethora of perks, but we promise a genuine drive, meaningful work, and constant learning.
✅ No authority pressure. Personally, I have always harbored an enmity towards autocratic hierarchical systems where the most successful people are those who conform best to management, rather than the most talented ones. As such, I actively encourage and question my team members who are smarter than me or more skilled in their professional areas to express and defend their views, even in situations when we disagree.
✅ Trust. Our product is designed primarily for remote workers and independent contractors, just like our own team, who operate fully remotely from various countries and time zones. This necessitates placing greater trust in your team and offers employees a much higher level of job control. Research has confirmed that the level of job control is strongly linked with overall job satisfaction.