Hey there,

Edgar from Engyne here, a tool that makes it easy to write content and build pages for SEO. Every week, we share our progress with building our startup from the ground up. Here’s the archive if you want to review our past issues.

Last week was definitely one to remember. Let’s dive straight into our wins this time, so we can get right into the update.

Wins & Updates

• Won a 3-day hackathon and went from idea to revenue with our new AI product within the weekend 🏆

  • Last weekend was Build Weekend at On Deck, a 3-day hackathon for fellows across SF, NYC, and around the world culminating in a 2 minute live pitch judged by the OD community.

  • We used the weekend to build a new LLM app to speed up idea generation and content writing (LLM in AI-speak = Large Language Model) after receiving feedback from our customers that writing new blogs was one of the most time consuming parts of their current SEO workflow.

  • When it came time to unveil the results, we were in the top 3 for every category (community favourite, best pitch, most technically impressive, etc) and won an award as the only team that was able to build a product and generate revenue ($200 MRR) within the weekend! 🚀

  • That brings our monthly recurring revenue to $500, meaning a 67% increase in MRR 📈

  • Next, we’re focused on incorporating the new build into our existing software at a higher price point, and updating our website and messaging to reflect the new functionality.

• Got our first public features (one newsletter and one podcast) 📣

  • Last Friday, we were featured in Indie Worldwide, a weekly newsletter and community for bootstrapped founders with over 3000 members

    • In the interview, we shared the story behind how my co-founder Sukh and I met, what motivated us to go into entrepreneurship, and how we leveraged content and community to get our first customers. Feel free to check it out here and let us know if you’d like us to go deeper on any topics. I’d be happy to do a deep dive in a future newsletter!

  • I also spoke on the Build in Public Podcast with KP, as part of a special episode where he brought in alumni from the Build in Public Fellowship to share insights on our journeys during the program, the power of community, and the magic of showing up online as your authentic self.

    • This holds a special place in my heart as participating in the fellowship this past spring was a huge inflection point that pushed me to make the leap back into entrepreneurship and start this company. Feel free to give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Learnings & Lessons

• Manage your energy effectively

  • This past week, Sukh and I felt low energy as we worked straight through the weekend for the hackathon.

  • That plus it being our last week of the program in SF packed with events and socials with On Deck fellows meant our productivity was far lower than usual (hence why I sent this newsletter out today instead of Tuesday).

  • Instead of trying to push through the fatigue, we decided to give ourselves a lighter week and focus on solidifying our relationships with the connections we made during the program before heading back to Canada (where we’re both based).

  • Building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. Although there are definitely times when you need to push hard, you don’t have to be at 110% every week.

  • The key is to make consistent forward progress every day, and the results will come.

• Play the long game

  • Last week, we had a customer let us know that he decided to pause his efforts on growing his business due to some personal challenges.

  • This is a common issue with software companies that serve founders as they experience a lot of volatility (especially in this funding environment).

  • As a result, many companies try to sign up startups to annual commitments to lock in revenue right away or treat any invoice paid as final.

  • Instead, we decided to give him a full refund immediately, no questions asked.

  • One of our core values is to put our customers first in all situations, and we plan to maintain this philosophy as we scale.

  • For us, playing the long game is more important than any short term increase in cash on hand.

  • Documenting core values like this in the early days is critical, as they allow you to make clear decisions when issues arise and sets a standard for other employees as your business grows.

Gratitudes & Asks

Gratitudes

• Thank you to the On Deck Fellows we signed up during Build Weekend. We’re grateful for your feedback and support.

• Thank you to Anthony from Indie Worldwide and KP from the Build in Public Fellowship for the amazing features.

• Thank you to Aaron from Waitlyst for helping out with designs for our new build.

Asks

• Follow Engyne on Twittter! We’ll start posting there more regularly soon so we’d love for you to follow along.

Thanks for reading to the end! If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to hit reply. We read every one :)

See you next week!

Thanks,

Edgar & Sukh

Co-founders of Engyne

P.S. Here’s a pic of us after winning the “Most Revenue” prize at Build Weekend 🏆