I founded http://www.accountportal.com about 4 years back. We had our first paying subscribers within the first month, but growth over the first 12 months was very slow.
Things continued to grow at an moderately increasing rate after that. Our initial app was based on Adobe Flex (i.e. flash backend); worst decision ever. The iPad was released - initially we thought (hoped!) that the decision to not support flash would be overturned in time. After a few months it was clear that we had to change.
It took us 6 months to completely rewrite our app, during which time growth pretty much flat-lined. However, the rewrite was probably the best decision ever, since it has allowed us to move much faster then we ever could before, and subscription rates increased.
I'd say that it took us 3 years to get it "right". There are still loads of things we need to improve (product tours, engagement emails, etc), but we're getting there. Those first years were tough, and many times we thought of giving up. We're now doubling numbers every 12 months. We're up against some pretty huge competition, and those kind of growth rates suit us just fine given that we have always been 100% bootstrapped and that we're now cash positive.
The two biggest factors in gaining traction were:
(i) Trying loads of different approaches. Different marketing channels, different prices, different emails, different anything. Having said that, we sometimes get some really weird stats coming through that have no rhyme or reason. Why is one month 3 times more subscribers than the previous month, and then back down again? Sometimes it just feels like a "roll of the dice".
(ii) Not giving up. We were in the fortunate position of being able to stick it out for a long time (some may say longer than we should have). I sometime heard stuff like "good entrepreneurs know when to give up", and I'd guess that some (most?) would have in the same position as us after a year or two. The early years were an absolute slog - so be prepared to think in terms of years, not months.
Things continued to grow at an moderately increasing rate after that. Our initial app was based on Adobe Flex (i.e. flash backend); worst decision ever. The iPad was released - initially we thought (hoped!) that the decision to not support flash would be overturned in time. After a few months it was clear that we had to change.
It took us 6 months to completely rewrite our app, during which time growth pretty much flat-lined. However, the rewrite was probably the best decision ever, since it has allowed us to move much faster then we ever could before, and subscription rates increased.
I'd say that it took us 3 years to get it "right". There are still loads of things we need to improve (product tours, engagement emails, etc), but we're getting there. Those first years were tough, and many times we thought of giving up. We're now doubling numbers every 12 months. We're up against some pretty huge competition, and those kind of growth rates suit us just fine given that we have always been 100% bootstrapped and that we're now cash positive.
The two biggest factors in gaining traction were: (i) Trying loads of different approaches. Different marketing channels, different prices, different emails, different anything. Having said that, we sometimes get some really weird stats coming through that have no rhyme or reason. Why is one month 3 times more subscribers than the previous month, and then back down again? Sometimes it just feels like a "roll of the dice". (ii) Not giving up. We were in the fortunate position of being able to stick it out for a long time (some may say longer than we should have). I sometime heard stuff like "good entrepreneurs know when to give up", and I'd guess that some (most?) would have in the same position as us after a year or two. The early years were an absolute slog - so be prepared to think in terms of years, not months.