Candle dealer builds $5k MRR software to solve own problem - Dianna Allen & Jeremy Blalock, Inventora
In this episode I’ve got my first ever returning guest with Dianna Allen and first ever double act as we’re joined by her fiance Jeremy Blalock. I spoke to Dianna about a year ago after growing her handmade candle business from $100 to $50k in that year. Since then Dianna is still running TERRA and doubled the revenue in 2021, but has also co-founded Inventora which has just hit $5k MRR. Inventora is inventory tracking system for handmade businesses, solving Dianna’s own problem with TERRA.
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What we covered in this episode:
- How TERRA is going
- Handmade business vs SaaS business. Which is better?
- Solving her own problem with TERRA to build Inventora
- Spreadsheet to SaaS
- Asking Jeremy (Dianna’s partner) to build the product
- Growing without paying for ads
- Leveraging existing relationships
- Choosing to raise a small funding round
- Why raise money if you’re an indie hacker?
- Spending $25,000 on a domain
- Tactics for growing to $5k MRR
- Hiring a videographer to make a documentary
Recommendations
- Books: The Innovation Stack, The Gardeners Almanack
- Podcasts: Acquired, The Product Boss
- Indie Hackers: Elon Musk, Jon Yongfook
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