MicroConf Lesson #2. Rob Walling: “Flywheel Businesses Rule”

I was stuck between two of the MicroConf speakers’ somewhat conflicting advice. Noah called me out on using the complications of a subscription service to delay launching. I knew it’d be more of a pain in the ass to sell single products over and over, but I also knew he was right about making excuses. As an update to the first post, the Kale Chip sale ended up selling a few over 20 units to a list of under 250. I had some help with conversion rates because of some signups / immediate purchases from my friend Sarah Fragoso‘s RT. My list still converted well over 5%, which I took to mean I’d marketed to the right people.

But still, a subscription would be so much better! Not only is it a perfect example of Rob Walling’s theory of the “Hamster Wheel vs Flywheel” -  it’s what I originally planned and marketed the site as, and it is what I wanted to do (For the uninitiated, a Hamster Wheel requires constant work to keep moving, but a Flywheel can be left relatively unattended).  But I am not a coder, and I didn’t want to pay one if I wasn’t sure they could execute well. So I lingered until a ridiculously serendipitous thing happened.

On a flight for my new job at Envaulted, I ended up sitting next to Brian Balfour who says I should talk to Chris Keller (additional serendipity: my girlfriend now does contract work for Brian’s startup). So naturally I email Chris and we chat a few times. After the third time I asked him if he was interested in helping build PaleoPax’s backend, he finally said “You should check out member.ly, they might be what you are looking for.”

David, one of the guys at Memberly, is pretty gung-ho about my project, and in no more than 10 days, the new PaleoPax is up and running. If you want to start a subscription service, these are the guys you need to go to.

In 10 hours since the page went live, 19 people subscribed for $20 per month, and I’ve got some amazing products lined up: Caveman Cookies, Kelp Noodles, Tanka Bar, Carob, and MetroMint. Most of the companies have agreed to include a 5-15% off discount code for PaleoPax members, and I’m hoping to get a discount subscription to Paleo Magazine for them as well! I know I can deliver well over $20 of value to my subscribers, make a little money, and I’ll have loads of fun exploring the world of Paleo food. Should be a fun time!