Building LawStar – a year long indie hacking journey
mackey.substack.com
mackey.substack.com
Not sure how long this person has been out of school, but students are notoriously cheap. I’m not surprised there was no interest when monetizing/charging.
Maybe a collab between law schools and including the tool there. Students get it “free” and you get paid by the law school.
Mitchell Hashimoto created a service that students at UW could use to find out when registration slots were open for high-demand classes and made $160k/yr from it.[0]
Aaron Francis sold a study guide for an accounting class at Texas A&M[1] and made a lot from it, though I can't find a public source on it.
If you aren't in the US, you wouldn't know, but law students aren't your standard student, and they aren't notoriously cheap. My law school had an overpriced café in the basement that targeted only students, and it was packed with us every day. We're paying for an education well in excess of $100,000 in tuition alone.
My journal kept our office stocked with tons of treats, just like a dot com startup. We were on the top floor of the building, had a good view, had lots of privacy and quiet, a ton of floor space, couches, a TV, etc.
My journal charged $60/yr and had a circulation of around 1500.
I can't remember what the printing cost was, but that's $90,000 in revenue and zero labor costs. Law students do this work for free because it's the second best thing you can have on your job applications aside from graduating at the top of the class.
So yeah, law students could afford a few subscriptions. :)
If that's true, then segmenting for one mode or the other might make sense...and conversely just targeting "law students" as a single segment might not.
For example, students with money to eat at the high end cafe would tend to expect a high end experience and expect to pay accordingly, while ramen students would seek a value price and accept a less luxurious experience.
Or to put it another way, some segments are a choice between bread and cake. Other segments are a choice between bread and nothing.
My wife attended a school ranked ~30th in the US, and was in a leadership position at her school's flagship journal, which was in a dingy room with the only amenity being a microwave.
Maybe it looks different at a T14 school, but the vast majority of journal students I know would have balked at a >$10/month subscription like this
if you're going to law school you're already spending a gazillion $ to get through school, and are willing to pay a bit more for a tool that actually saves you time and your sanity
And yet there's something to it. Of course it's a nothing market, from the standpoint of immediate revenue. But the students will become professionals in just a few years, and if you can get them to not only use your tools, but to be thinking "this is just how its done" -- that, in theory, can help you establish your market.
This was Venmo's strategy, apparently -- there's was a completely different vertical, of course, but they went for the "long game" in this regard, and it seems to have paid off for them.
I think you did a lot of things the right way but probably went after a tough market. Students. Students are the most broke category and then comes indiehackers :). I would usually refrain from selling to these 2.
"A quick market-sizing exercise: there are ~110k law students in the US, ~25% of whom are in journals, and half of those are 2nd years. If I could penetrate even 10% of that market at $10/month, I’d be at $165k in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)"
Haha. This is a classic newbie founder mistake thinking all you need is a % of the market. We all have made it. Now you know. Market estimate should be made bottom up, not top down.
"find the connectors"
This is so key. If you are in a niche industry, finding the right connections who can open doors can be huge.
"Don't be a solo founder"
As a solo founder (even though with a small team), I couldn't agree more. I know having co-founders brings in risks of conflict etc but I am so ready to build a fresh team with cofounders who are thinking about the business 24-7 like I do. If you have a team like that and you work well together, that's a dream.
Tell us more about your next thing.
dang, my goal was 3% of my market. what should i be doing instead?
You can find out more about the next thing here - https://mura-website.notion.site/Founding-Engineer-at-Mura-1...
tl;dr - helping commercial HVAC providers accelerate and automate their order-to-cash cycle. Big and interesting market with a lot of opportunities for efficiencies
Was the sale price anything useful or just a small bandaid to not make the whole experience feel like a throwing savings in a hole?