Thread by @yasser_elsaid_

3 months ago I launched Chatbase.co to my 16 twitter followers.

Today, I have 1,800 customers paying between $10 and $399 every month.

It's been such a grind that I didn't have any time to celebrate this or even process it.

But here's how I believe I got here:

Chatbase was one of the first 'Chat with your data' tools.

So LLM hype + good video demos (screen.studio by @pie6k ) meant there was a high chance of going viral even with no audience, which is exactly what happened to my first 4 tweets about Chatbase.

The growing popularity of tools like @LangChainAI and @pinecone also helped. I made sure to associate Chatbase with these tools by speaking at their webinars and joining twitter spaces to discuss how to use them with @mayowaoshin @transitive_bs.

I posted on reddit and @IndieHackers telling my story and asking for advice, which gave Chatbase a lot of visibility.

Posts like 'Here's a tool I built' do not perform well on these platforms since they are flooded with similar posts everyday.

It's better to tell a story.

Now for the problems I am facing.

Chatbase is a very obvious idea given the hype around vector embeddings and LLMs. I see a new tool doing the same thing launched everyday.

But competition is good because it means there is a demand for what you're building.

If you're doing something no one else is doing, you're either a genius or an idiot.

A solution for this is to either stay small and find a niche to dominate, or to raise money and try to grow as much as possible.

But there is a third option, building a small team of 3/4 people and aim for a $10M ARR business. This is the option I am aiming for.

For now, I will continue working tirelessly on Chatbase and build a product that customers love.

If you enjoyed this thread follow me and check out Chatbase.co!