Card
AJ, the anonymous creator behind HTML5 UP and Pixelarity, had built a successful catalog of free and paid website templates. After years of coasting on that income, he felt he had grown complacent. In 2015 he wanted a project that would stretch his skills across the full stack, and he noticed that one-page template designs were among the most downloaded on HTML5 UP. That signal pointed him toward a one-page website builder.
AJ began with a rough prototype of the generator, the component that takes raw user input and outputs HTML and CSS. Once he confirmed he could build that piece, he worked outward to build every other layer. He describes the first closed alpha, which was arguably feature complete (users could log in, build a site, and publish it), as about six months of off-and-on work, starting in summer 2015 and launching in October or November 2015. He kept the project quiet for most of that time, emailing fewer than a dozen people and avoiding public posts.
In early 2016 AJ began announcing an open beta on Twitter and invited interested people to DM or email him for access. The launch on Product Hunt then sent a large wave of new users. AJ also chose to launch with a free plan and a paid Pro plan at the same time, which let him test willingness to pay right away. He said people were more likely to complain that the product was too cheap than too expensive.
AJ's Twitter presence, his practice of building in public, and his hands-on support were central to growth. He answered support requests directly, and he said that approach turned frustrated users into advocates. He is candid that luck played a large role and that he did not plan the growth. The Pro plan's low price and the free tier were deliberate, but he admitted that many of his choices were improvised.
Card generates roughly $30,000 a month in revenue. Each month, almost 20,000 new users sign up, and more than 40,000 websites have been created. AJ continues to build in public and keeps a more formal roadmap while still leaving room for unplanned features, such as the payment-enabled forms feature that came out of a conversation with Peter Levels.
- •Card's market was large enough that a focused niche (one-page sites) could coexist with bigger competitors like Squarespace and Wix.
- •Building in public created a feedback loop, with frequent updates generating both positive reinforcement and useful criticism.
- •Treating support as direct, human conversation turned angry users into advocates and built goodwill that spread through Twitter.
- •Launching with both a free plan and a paid plan at once tested willingness to pay immediately and avoided wasting launch traffic.
- •Solo constraints forced a narrow focus, which made the product simpler to support and easier to differentiate.
- 1.Pick a narrow niche within a large market where bigger competitors are less focused, and build for that segment specifically.
- 2.Share progress publicly on Twitter with frequent changelog posts, and invite feedback from the people who respond.
- 3.Open direct channels such as DMs or email for support, and respond personally to every request you can.
- 4.Launch with a free tier and a low-priced paid tier at the same time to test willingness to pay from day one.
- 5.Build a small prototype of the riskiest core component first to confirm feasibility before building the rest of the product.
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