4個人做了一款年入百萬美元的郵件客戶端

{"type":"doc","content":[{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"strong"}],"text":"本文最初發佈於Missive官方博客，經原作者授權由InfoQ中文站翻譯並分享。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"五年前，我們推出了Missive，這是一款新穎的、但有點難定義的電子郵件客戶端。四月初的時候，我們的年度經常性收入（ARR）達到100萬美元。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"image","attrs":{"src":"https:\/\/static001.geekbang.org\/infoq\/86\/86113b8b83216a4bcf1150df5be95448.jpeg","alt":null,"title":null,"style":[{"key":"width","value":"75%"},{"key":"bordertype","value":"none"}],"href":null,"fromPaste":true,"pastePass":true}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"在Missive成立早期，我們推出第一個公開版本的時候"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我相信我們的旅程是非常吸引人，有以下幾個原因："}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"bulletedlist","content":[{"type":"listitem","attrs":{"listStyle":null},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們是自籌資金"}]}]},{"type":"listitem","attrs":{"listStyle":null},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們是一個由三個聯合創始人和一個僱員組成的小團隊"}]}]},{"type":"listitem","attrs":{"listStyle":null},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們建立了一個基於雲的協作式電子郵件客戶端（也就是說這並不容易）"}]}]},{"type":"listitem","attrs":{"listStyle":null},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們從來沒有在市場營銷上花過一分錢"}]}]},{"type":"listitem","attrs":{"listStyle":null},"content":[{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們非常有韌性"}]}]}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"自籌資金"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Missive是依靠自己的力量，即我們未從投資者那裏拿過一分錢。我們用其他業務的現金流提供運轉資金。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"沒有穩固的資金支持是不可能開始一個新的電子郵件客戶端的。要知道，很多電子郵件初創公司已經進了墳墓。我們對此有深深的認識。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"長話短說，我在位於加拿大魁北克市的聯合辦公空間遇到我們聯合創始人，並結識了其他志同道合的人。他們成立了一個Web開發工作室，而我則通過做一些有趣\/有創意的小項目來學習編程，並嘗試不同的商業理念。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我在組織一個遊戲開發者聚會後產生一個想法。作爲一名組織者，我爲所有的與會者、評委、贊助商等設計和打印胸牌。這個過程真的很痛苦。我曾設想過一種類似Vistaprint的胸牌服務。我一開始是獨自創建了它，然後很快就請現在的聯合創始人與我一起開發這個項目。ConferenceBadge.com於2013年推出，並迅速實現盈利。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"在一年半時間，它創造了足夠的收益，這讓我們可以全身心地投入到產品中。話雖如此，我們對專門致力於在線胸牌服務的想法並不感到興奮。我們集思廣益地討論了我們在創建會議徽章時遇到的問題，Etienne想到創建一個協作式電子郵件草稿編輯器來簡化支持。這個想法很快就演變成一個成熟的協作式電子郵件客戶端。於是，Missive誕生了。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們花了一年時間構建原型，又花了一年時間纔開始收費，又花了一年時間才擁有一些真正的客戶，又花了一年時間實現盈利，最後又花了一年時間達到100萬美元的年度經常性收入。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"如果沒有CB支付賬單，我們就不可能負擔得起在Missive上花這麼長時間。生活就像一場角色扮演遊戲；由你構建。"}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"小團隊"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"在過去5年裏，團隊的全職成員從未超過4名。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"以下是我們各自承擔的角色："}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"image","attrs":{"src":"https:\/\/static001.geekbang.org\/infoq\/ae\/ae16b815d958409834f7c6ac7b897fc3.jpeg","alt":null,"title":null,"style":[{"key":"width","value":"75%"},{"key":"bordertype","value":"none"}],"href":null,"fromPaste":true,"pastePass":true}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Etienne和我熟悉90%的代碼庫，主要專注於特性開發。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"另一方面，Rafael掌握所有代碼。他會審查提交到不同項目的每一行代碼。他要確保服務器是健康的，並且數據庫能承受每天運行的數十億次查詢。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Etienne利用他無窮的Web技術知識，在所有平臺（Electron、Cordova、Web）上提供快速、安全的HTML\/JS體驗。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Luis設計了公共網站，維護其內容，撰寫博客文章，併爲客戶做演示。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我個人負責管理工資、開支、辦公室、會計和長期財務計劃。這些任務通常只佔我一小部分時間。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"在大多數日子裏，客戶支持約佔我們工作時間的33%。儘管我們在發展壯大，但這一點並沒有改變。我們花了很多時間使應用程序更容易使用，並改進文檔以減少每個客戶的請求。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們爲自己提供的支持水平感到自豪；我們的客戶經常對我們幫助解決問題的速度感到驚訝，特別是來自競爭對手產品的客戶。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們相信，只要我們四個人，就能再增長100%。規模小讓我們在產品決策上更靈活。我們首先是產品構建者，而不是管理者，我們希望儘可能長時間地保持這種狀態。"}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"構建基於雲的協作式電子郵件應用"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"至少從我們的經驗來看，比起我們的其他產品，我們之所以花了這麼長時間才實現盈利，原因之一是我們所選擇的領域非常複雜。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"構建一個協作式電子郵件客戶端非常具有挑戰性，回報也很高，但在擁有一個最小可用產品之前，你需要處理的事情非常多。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"你需要平衡投入的時間，使之與現有的產品和創新工作保持一致。我們的大多數競爭對手都籌集了數千萬到數億美元，這並不奇怪；這個領域很難做。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"到目前爲止，我們的大多數架構決策都經受住了時間和發展的考驗。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們早期做出的最瘋狂的決定之一是在所有平臺上"},{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https:\/\/medium.com\/missive-app\/our-dirty-little-secret-cross-platform-email-client-with-nothing-but-html-aa12fc33bb02?fileGuid=RozyD4CEiWEY8kDH","title":"","type":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"構建並部署一個JavaScript\/HTML代碼庫"}]},{"type":"text","text":"。我們知道，以我們的團隊規模，不可能在所有主要平臺（Windows、Mac、iOS、Android和Web）上使用多個代碼庫推出電子郵件客戶端。用 JavaScript 編寫移動電子郵件客戶端是我們唯一能參與競爭的方式。我們不僅成功地在手機上創造了速度驚人的體驗，令我們驚訝的是，蘋果在App Store上多次推薦我們的應用。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"直到今天，我還是相信，這個決定是我們能與擁有大量投資的初創公司進行競爭的主要原因。我們拒絕了三個來自獨角獸創業公司的收購要約；他們都對我們在所有平臺上使用一個代碼庫進行交付的技能和經驗感興趣。"}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"尋找客戶"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們最初的用戶大多是早期的技術採用者，他們正在尋找一種新的創新型的跨平臺電子郵件客戶端。我們是通過在不同的技術探索社區（如ProductHunt）上發帖來發現這些客戶的。這些早期的獨立用戶想要的功能與最終真正成爲付費客戶的中小型企業不同。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"這在一段時間內誤導了我們，創建了越來越多並不符合我們願景的功能。例如，我們開始提供閱讀跟蹤，因爲它是早期採用者最需要的功能之一。許多用戶爲此升級到付費服務；他們對應用提供的任何協作功能都不感興趣。這些獨立用戶的流失速度遠遠超過真正的團隊，而且我們每掙一美元就需要付出更多的客戶支持\/服務器資源。在某個時候，我們意識到了這一點，於是決定完全專注於團隊。我們拋棄了閱讀跟蹤，因爲它是爲了吸引那些需求錯位的客戶。我們的客戶流失率直線下降。這個慘痛的教訓告訴我們：要有勇氣說不。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們從未在市場營銷上花過一分錢；在我們的領域中，獲取用戶的成本非常高。我們無法與獲得風投支持的公司競爭。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"（我們的要價比競爭對手低。）他們的價格更高，而且通常是一年協議。合同到期後，價格會大幅上漲；這時，他們的客戶就會尋找替代選項，並找到了我們。我們讓風投支持的初創公司用大量的廣告來建立市場，而我們則耐心地等待更好、更實惠的產品。"}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"韌性"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們在大多數決定上都是保守的。爲了長期保持這個小型團隊的創新工作，我們會節約時間和金錢。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們做出的決定總是會確保我們仍然能夠將66%的時間分配到產品上。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們的工作日和五年前沒什麼不同。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們不設定目標或長期路線圖。每天，我們都在做那些似乎可以很好地利用時間的事情，就這樣。長期計劃令人厭煩，而且對我們這樣的團隊來說，一直是毫無用處。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"對於Missive過去五年的發展，我們得出的最主要的結論是什麼？韌性，我們能從任何困難中恢復過來，以新眼光看待我們的工作，並保持動力。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們的故事不是冒險，而是堅持不懈的工作。我相信，我們工作的複合效應可以與風投支持的、全面出擊的初創公司相媲美。"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"strong"}],"text":"保持韌性"},{"type":"text","text":"。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"原文鏈接："}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"https:\/\/missiveapp.com\/blog\/how-we-built-1m-arr-email-client?fileGuid=RozyD4CEiWEY8kDH"}]}]}