We Built Proxycurl into a 7-figure Business. Watch Us Fail with Sapiengraph

You may have read about our grueling journey of reaching US$1 million in ARR via cold emails with Proxycurl last year.

Since then, much has changed.

This year, I want to share how we will fail our way to another US$1 million in ARR with our new brand, Sapiengraph.

First things first, let’s share some updates.

Over the past year, Proxycurl has experienced significant growth, reaching a seven-digit ARR, while remaining a 100% bootstrapped and profitable business (note: not a startup). However, we now face a new challenge: How do we achieve an eight-digit ARR without relying on VC money?

As someone who cut their teeth at Indie Hackers, I’ve noticed plenty of discussions on the zero-to-one process, but there are not enough stories about the growing pains companies face in their teenage phase.

Therefore, I’ve decided to contribute some of our war stories, albeit with a twist. Every day for the foreseeable future, my marketing team and I will share our growth hacks to take Sapiengraph - our new brand - to US$1 million in ARR.

US$740 MRR is our entry to a bigger TAM

At the time of writing, Sapiengraph boasts an MRR of US$740. That’s just US$991k away from hitting US$1 million in ARR, right?

But first, let me explain why we decided to launch Sapiengraph instead of doubling down on Proxycurl with three words: Total Addressable Market, or TAM for short.

Marketing a B2B product to software engineers is hard. For example, traditional ads don't work for growth because most software engineers use ad blockers. So Sapiengraph was born to extend our data product to users beyond software engineers.

In Indie Hackers lingo, Sapiengraph is the no-code alternative to Proxycurl. With Sapiengraph, our TAM opens up significantly but orthogonally. But that also means that what worked for Proxycurl may not necessarily work for Sapiengraph.

A bigger TAM with a lack of high-volume keywords?

When I first started marketing Proxycurl, I knew I had to rank for the keyword “linkedin api” - and we eventually did. However, there isn't a comparable, compelling keyword for Sapiengraph!

Therein lies the biggest problem with a general data product like Sapiengraph - it is far too general.

And so we embarked on a complete redesign of our website. As we speak, we’re in the midst of our second revamp. Instead of shilling the product and its capabilities, we’ve decided to focus on promoting use cases. By doing so, we’ve identified keywords that we can try to rank for, like “crm” or “lead tracker”.

Additionally, we’ve launched Google Sheets templates powered by Sapiengraph magic, providing SMBs with a cost-effective alternative to expensive CRM and lead-tracking tools.

Let's face it, lots of companies - including ourselves, for a while - used spreadsheets to track leads and prospects. I most definitely did.

So that's our strategy. We’ve crafted high-quality blog posts dedicated to these Google Sheets templates, focusing on various keywords related to CRM and lead tracking. But despite our efforts, we’re still not ranking.

And I think I know why. But I’ll save that for tomorrow. Stay tuned.