The story of CartBoss is filled with highs, lows, and plenty of “why didn’t we think of this sooner?” moments. Like many SaaS founders, we believed that building the perfect product would lead us to success. If you have the best SMS cart recovery tool, people will naturally come, right? We couldn’t have been more wrong.
We spent too much time perfecting our product instead of getting it in front of people. In this post, we’re sharing what we learned from this mistake.
The Product Obsession Trap
Our goal was clear: to create the best SMS cart recovery tool possible. We focused on every detail, perfecting automation and personalization, and optimizing every feature. The result? A brilliant product that nobody knew about.
We believed that once we achieved perfection, people would see its value. But without visibility, those features just collected digital dust.
The Marketing Reality Check
No matter how great your product is, if nobody knows about it, it doesn’t exist. While we were perfecting our product, others were grabbing the spotlight. They weren’t necessarily better, but they understood the power of marketing.
Building a solid product is only half the equation—the other half is ensuring people know about it. Marketing isn’t an afterthought; it’s the lifeline that keeps the business alive.
The Shift in Strategy
Once we realized our mistake, we changed gears. We embraced the idea that “done is better than perfect” and started marketing like crazy. We created content, ran ads, reached out to partners, and got CartBoss in front of as many eyes as possible.
We spoke to customers, learned their pain points, and showed how CartBoss could help. We wanted CartBoss to be the obvious choice for anyone needing a cart recovery tool.
The Results? Night and Day
When we focused on marketing, everything changed. Our MRR grew, customers shared their success stories, and our product finally got the spotlight it deserved. We learned that being seen and making noise was what we needed all along.
Today, CartBoss helps businesses boost ROAS and sell up to 50% more by recovering abandoned carts on autopilot. More importantly, it’s a testament to a key lesson: don’t wait for people to find you—go out and tell the world why they need you.
Takeaway: Perfect Isn’t Profitable (CartBoss now brings in $25,000 MRR)
To early-stage SaaS builders: learn from our mistakes. Yes, build a solid product, but don’t wait for it to be perfect before you tell the world. Perfect is the enemy of good, and focusing too much on it can mean focusing too little on growth.
If we could go back, we’d spend less time perfecting and more time building relationships, creating buzz, and learning from customers. The world moves fast—while you’re perfecting, someone else is marketing. Don’t be us—market your product like your success depends on it, because it does.
Some stats:
- Profitable with a 3-person team: We’ve managed to build a profitable business with just the three of us, proving that a small, dedicated team can make a big impact.
- 4.8 average rating on Shopify & WooCommerce: Our plugins have received a 4.8-star rating on both platforms, with users praising their ease of use, reliability, and the real results they see in their sales.
- 1,000+ active installations: Our tools are now used by over 1,000 e-commerce stores worldwide, helping businesses of all sizes drive conversions and streamline their operations.
- 65% user retention rate: Once users try our plugins, they tend to stick around—we’re proud of an 65% retention rate, which shows the value and satisfaction our tools deliver.
- 50% increase in conversions: Many of our clients report up to a 50% boost in their sales conversions after installing our plugins, making them a powerful asset in their e-commerce strategy.