On Feb 22, we launched our MVP on Product Hunt.
It had truly the minimum feature set based on a combination of what we heard from prospective users and what we could realistically build in a handful of months.
Though Kraftful included GPT feedback analysis since 2021 (I even prototyped V1 in early 2020), our 2023 MVP used entirely new code.
We focused on best solving user need with the newest GPT models rather than getting bogged down by our older implementations.
From the moment we launched, we knew we were onto something.
Not least because we were hitting every possible API rate limit – breaking our product in the process!
We instantly got multiple extensions to handle all the data our users analyzed.
Our mission is to help product builders create a community of delighted users around their products by involving users in the dev process in ways never before possible.
Step 1: Building a user community for Kraftful.
And because the full Kraftful solution didn’t exist, we started doing it the old fashioned way: By talking with users. A LOT.
We quickly got the problem Kraftful was designed to solve for our customers: WAY more user feedback than we could handle from Intercom chat, in-product surveys, demo calls, email, Twitter, etc.
Great opportunity to dogfood our product!
Every month after launching, we had new aggressive user goals, but we kept smashing every goal…until we smashed our product 😱
After getting featured as the top AI solution for PMs, we got more users or really more data than can be handled on GPT4. A certain rite of passage 😅
We spread our calls between Azure & OpenAI, but ultimately had to re-architect with other GPT models.
In true Y Combinator spirit, we stayed lean through every pivot, but now needed more hands on deck.
We grew our eng team 150%
No big number when starting small. Still tricky to rebuild a product swarmed by users while onboarding engineers who outnumber the existing team.
We were scaling like crazy, but one personally satisfying moment was getting Kraftful featured on Masters of Scale and in FastCompany as AI’s Next Big Thing.
Founder real talk: we’ve all been jaded reading about products instantly reaching millions.
But having purposefully focused on a narrow group of product builders, we had to remind ourselves that we'll grow at a different rate than apps usable by everyone – even with explosive growth.
Kraftful isn't a general AI summary tool. We're building a copilot to automate the product workflow so folks can focus on strategic work.
Step 1 towards that mission is to turn insights into Jira tickets with Kraftful-written user stories, a feature we launched last month.
After iterating on the product for 6 months, we relaunched it on Product Hunt and got voted #3 Product of the Day 🙌
This is of course just the beginning. So grateful to be on this journey with our amazing team and wonderful users 🥰
