How I made $4982 on this new productized service in 40 days.

I've made $4982 on a new productized service.

But, a month ago I had 0 customer, 0 team, 0 idea how to do this.

Here's how I kickstarted the service from scratch in 40 days.

The Genesis of an Idea

I launched PressPulse .ai in October as an AI that finds PR/backlink opportunities for you and grew its MRR to $700.

When my second-ever user churned he told me he didn't have time to pursue those opportunities.

He'd pay 10x if we could just solve the problem for him.

So I experimented with a productized link-building service for DR50+ backlinks on top media outlets. I wrote about this experiment a month back too.

However, the challenges are:

1. I need to hire a team to help deliver this service
2. I need to have customers so I can afford a team

Overcoming the Chicken-and-Egg Dilemma

Step 1: Sourcing Talent

The journey began with a dive into Upwork. I sought freelancers willing to work on a results-based compensation model in exchange for a long-term work opportunity.

This removed the risk from me and my customers. This is also a great way to understand the market and how to position my service.

Step 2: Acquiring Customers

The next hurdle was acquiring customers to justify and finance hiring a team. By offering the service at cost (probably at a loss actually), I sold five spots sold in four hours to 300 people who have tried my AI previously.

A cherry on top is when a customer paid with a link in the email a week later at an increased price, which brings me to 7 customers total.

Step 3: Quality Control and Delivery

Distributing the initial orders among 7 different freelancers on Upwork, I aimed to gauge the quality of work and reliability of each. The freelance world is filled with variability in quality, this ended up being the most time-consuming but also most crucial step.

After lots of trial and error, including navigating scams and underperformers, I identified 3 writers capable of delivering the high-quality work my clients expected. They ended up delivering all the work. Then I onboarded them with my AI to provide a unique advantage in our offering.

Step 4: Scaling Up

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. By demonstrating the value of our service with these initial deliveries, 2 of the 6 clients signed on for a $1.2k package, and an additional client from Twitter brought our presale total for this service to $4.8k.

This early success provided the momentum and capital needed to expand.

Step 5: Official Launch

With a more refined offering, real results to show, and a team ready to go. I'm officially launching this service today to the world today.

The first 5 customers gets one DR50+ link for free with any purchase. If you are interested check it out here.